A 
A 


DRAKE 

The  Old  Boston  Taverns  anH 
Tavern  Cl'tibs 


THE 


Old  Boston  Taverns 


AND 


TAVERN    CLUBS 


BY 


SAMUEL    ADAMS    DRAKE, 

AUTHOR    OF   "OLD    LANDMARKS    OF    BOSTON,"    ETC.,    ETC. 


<»0(S> 


BOSTON 

CUPPLES,    UPHAM,    &     COMPANY 

C;be  ©l&  Corner  JBoohstorc 

283  Washington  Street 


1886 


c  ^^^"^ 


Copyright,  1886,  by 
SAMUEL    ADAMS    DRAKE. 


PRESS    OF   HENRY    H.    CLARK   4   CO.,    BOSTON 


^^^^^^^ 


PREFACE 


r  what  is  now  included  in  the  following  pages,  a 
portion  was  read  In'  nie  to  the  Bostonian  Society 
several  years  ago,  hut  not  printed.  Inasmuch  as 
the  subject  brought  out,  incidentally,  some  very  marked 
phases  of  New  England  life  in  bygone  times,  it  proved 
to  be  not  merely  an  interesting  study,  but  one  having 
some  historical  value  as  well.  As  such,  it  seems  not  un- 
worthy of  a  place  in  our  historical  literature,  among  the 
Old  Laxdmauks.  At  least,  I  have  thought  it  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  warrant  a  fuller  presentation  of  the 
whole  subject  in  permanent  form,  the  more  so  as  the 
doing  this  would  also  permit  the  use  of  unpublished 
materials  chiefly  collected   by  the   late    S.   G.   Drake,  and 

now  included  in  the  Appendix. 

S.  A.  D. 
Boston,  1886. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I.    Upon  the  Tavern  as  an  Institution         ....  9 

II     The  Earlier  Ordinaries 19 

III.  In  Revolutionary  Times 33 

IV.  Signboard  Humor 52 

V.    Appendix:  Boston  Taverns  to  the  Year  1800        .        .  61 


vvni' 


Q^^^- 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The  Sign  of  the  Lamb  ........  17 

The  Heart  and  Crown 18 

The  Bunch  of  Grapes 34 

The  Cromwell's  Head 44 

The  Green  Dragon 47 

The  Brazen  Head 51 

The  Good  AVoman 52 

The  Dog  and  Pot 53 

How  Shall  I  Get  Through  This  World?  ...  54 

JuLiEN  House 65 

The  Three  Doves 70 


Ol^D    B05J0fI    5/^l/EI^MS 


I. 


UPOX    THE    TA\T]RN    AS    AN    INSTITUTION. 


HE  famous  remark  of  Louis  XIV.,  "  There  are 
no  longer  any  Pyrenees,"  may  perhaps  be  open 
to  criticism,  but  there  are  certainly  no  longer 
any  taverns  in  New  England.  It  is  true  that  the 
statutes  of  the  Commonwealth  continue  to  designate 
such  houses  as  the  Brunswick  and  Vendome  as  taverns, 
and  their  proprietors  as  innkeepers ;  yet  we  must  insist 
upon  the  truth  of  our  assertion,  the  letter  of  the  law 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

No  words  need  be  wasted  upon  the  present  degrada- 
tion which  the  name  of  tavern  implies  to  polite  ears.  In 
most  minds  it  is  now  associated  with  the  slums  of  the 
city,  and  with  that  particular  phase  of  city  life  only, 
so  all  may  agree  that,  as  a  prominent  feature  of  society 
and  manners,  the  tavern  has  had  its  day.  The  situation 
is  easily  accounted  for.  The  simple  truth  is,  that,  in 
moving  on,  the  world  has  loft  the  venerable  institution 
standing  in  the  eighteenth  century;  but  it  is  equally 
true  that,  before  that  time,  the  history  of  any  civilized 
people   could  hardly   be  written   without   making  great 


10  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

mention  of  it.  With  the  disappearance  of  the  old  sign- 
boards our  streets  certainly  have  lost  a  most  picturesque 
feature,  at  least  one  avenue  is  closed  to  art,  while  a 
few  very  aged  men  mourn  the  loss  of  something  en- 
deared to  them  by  many  pleasant  recollections. 

As  an  offset  to  the  admission  that  the  tavern  has 
outlived  its  usefulness,  we  ought  in  justice  to  establish 
its  actual  character  and  standing  as  it  was  in  the  past. 
We  shall  then  be  the  better  able  to  judge  how  it  was 
looked  upon  both  from  a  moral  and  material  stand-point, 
and  can  follow  it  on  through  successive  stages  of  good 
or  evil  fortune,  as  we  would  the  life  of  an  individual. 

It  fits  our  purpose  admirably,  and  we  are  glad  to 
find  so  eminent  a  scholar  and  divine  as  Dr.  Dwight  par- 
ticularly explicit  on  this  point.  He  tells  us  that,  in  his 
day,  "The  best  old-fashioned  New  England  inns  were 
superior  to  any  of  the  modern  ones.  There  was  less  bus- 
tle, less  parade,  less  appearance  of  doing  a  great  deal  to 
gratify  your  wishes,  than  at  the  reputable  modern  inns; 
but  much  more  was  actually  done,  and  there  was  much 
more  comfort  and  enjoyment.  In  a  word,  you  found  in 
these  inns  the  pleasures  of  an  excellent  private  house. 
If  you  were  sick  you  were  nursed  and  befriended  as 
in  your  own  family.  To  finish  the  story,  your  bills  were 
always  equitable,  calculated  on  what  you  ought  to  pay, 
and  not  upon  the  scheme  of  getting  the  most  which 
extortion  might  think  proper  to  demand." 

Now  this  testimonial  to  what  the  public  inn  was 
eighty  odd  years   ago   comes   with   authority    from   one 


THE    TAVERN    AS    AN   INSTITUTION.  11 

who  had  visited  every  nook  and  corner  of  New  England, 
was  so  keen  and  capable  an  observer,  and  is  always 
a  faithful  recorder  of  what  he  saw.  Dr.  Dwight  has 
frequently  said  that  during  his  travels  he  often  "  found 
his  warmest  welcome  at  an  inn." 

In  order  to  give  the  history  of  what  may  be  called 
the  Eise  and  Fall  of  the  Tavern  among  us,  we  should 
go  back  to  the  earliest  settlements,  to  the  very  be- 
ginning of  things.  In  our  own  country  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  justly  stand  for  the  highest  type  of  public  and 
private  morals.  No  less  would  be  conceded  them  by 
the  most  unfriendly  critic.  Intemperance,  extravagant 
living,  or  immorality  found  no  harborage  on  Plymouth 
Eock,  no  matter  under  what  disguise  it  might  come. 
Because  they  were  a  virtuous  and  sober  people,  they 
had  been  filled  with  alarm  for  their  own  youth,  lest 
the  example  set  by  the  Hollanders  should  corrupt  the 
stay  and  prop  of  their  community.  Indeed,  Bradford 
tells  us  fairly  that  this  was  one  determining  cause  of 
the  removal  into  New  England. 

The  institution  of  taverns  among  the  Pilgrims  fol- 
lowed close  upon  the  settlement.  Not  only  were  they 
a  recognized  need,  but,  as  one  of  the  time-honored  in- 
stitutions of  the  old  country,  no  one  seems  to  have 
thought  of  denouncing  them  as  an  evil,  or  even  as  a 
necessary  evil.  Travellers  and  sojourners  had  to  be 
provided  for  even  in  a  wilderness.  Therefore  taverns 
were  licensed  as  fast  as  new  villages  grew  up.  Upward 
of  a  dozen  were  licensed  at  one  sitting  of  the  General 


12  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

Court.  The  usual  form  of  concession  is  that  So-and-So 
is  licensed  to  draw  wine  and  beer  for  the  public.  The 
supervision  was  strict,  but  not  more  so  than  the  spirit 
of  a  patriarchal  community,  founded  on  morals,  would 
seem  to  require ;  but  there  were  no  such  attempts  to 
cover  up  the  true  character  of  the  tavern  as  we  have 
seen  practised  in  the  cities  of  this  Commonwealth  for 
the  purpose  of  evading  the  strict  letter  of  the  law; 
and  the  law  then  made  itself  respected.  An  inn- 
keeper was  not  then  looked  upon  as  a  person  who  was 
pursuing  a  disgraceful  or  immoral  calling,  —  a  sort  of 
outcast,  as  it  were,  —  but,  while  strictly  held  amenable 
to  the  law,  he  was  actually  taken  under  its  protection. 
For  instance,  he  was  fined  for  selling  any  one  person  an 
immoderate  quantity  of  liquor,  and  he  was  also  liable 
to  a  fine  if  he  refused  to  sell  the  quantity  allowed  to 
be  drank  on  the  premises,  though  no  record  is  found  of 
a  prosecution  under  this  singular  statutory  provision; 
still,  for  some  time,  this  regulation  was  continued  in 
force  as  the  only  logical  way  of  dealing  with  the  liquor 
question,  as  it  then  presented  itself. 

When  the  law  also  prohibited  a  citizen  from  enter- 
taining a  stranger  in  his  own  house,  unless  he  gave 
bonds  for  his  guest's  good  behavior,  the  tavern  occupied 
a  place  between  the  community  and  the  outside  world 
not  wholly  uiilike  that  of  a  moral  quarantine.  The 
town  constable  could  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon  all 
suspicious  characters  with  greater  ease  when  they  were 
under   one   roof.      Then   it   was   his   business   to   know 


I 


THE    TAVERN   AS    AN   INSTITUTION.  13 

everybody's,  so  that  any  show  of  mystery  about  it 
would  have  settled,  definitely,  the  stranger's  status,  as 
being  no  better  than  he  should  be.  "  Mind  your  own 
business,"  is  a  maxim  hardly  yet  domesticated  in  New 
England,  outside  of  our  cities,  or  likely  to  become  sud- 
denly popular  in  our  rural  communities,  where,  in  those 
good  old  days  we  are  talking  about,  a  public  official 
was  always  a  public  inquisitor,  as  well  as  newsbearer 
from  house  to  house. 

On  their  part,  the  Puritan  Fathers  seem  to  have  taken 
the  tavern  under  strict  guardianship  from  the  very  first. 
In  1634,  when  the  price  of  labor  and  everything  else 
was  regulated,  sixpence  was  the  legal  charge  for  a  meal, 
and  a  penny  for  an  ale  quart  of  beer,  at  an  inn,  and 
the  landlord  was  liable  to  ten  shillings  fine  if  a  greater 
charge  was  made.  Josselyn,  who  was  in  New  England 
at  a  very  early  day,  remarks,  that,  "At  the  tap-houses 
of  Boston  I  have  had  an  ale  quart  of  cider,  spiced  and 
sweetened  with  sugar,  for  a  groat."  So  the  fact  that 
the  law  once  actually  prescribed  how  much  sliould  be 
paid  for  a  morning  dram  may  be  set  down  among  the 
curiosities  of  colonial  legislation. 

No  later  than  the  year  1647  the  nnnibor  of  applicants 
for  licenses  to  keep  taverns  had  so  niufli  increased  that 
the  following  act  was  passed  by  our  General  Court  for 
its  own  relief:  "It  is  ordered  by  the  authority  of  this 
court,  that  henceforth  all  such  as  are  to  keep  houses 
of  common  entertainment,  and  to  retail  wine,  beer,  etc., 
shall  be  licensed  at  the  county  courts  of  the  shire  where 


14  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

they  live,  or  the  Court  of  Assistants,  so  as  this  court 
may  not  be  thereby  hindered  in  their  more  weighty 
affairs." 

A  noticeable  thing  about  this  particular  bill  is,  that 
when  it  went  down  for  concurrence  thfe  word  "  deputies  " 
was  erased  and  "  house "  substituted  by  the  speaker  in 
its  stead,  thus  showhig  that  the  newly  born  popular 
body  had  begun  to  assert  itself  as  the  only  true  repre- 
sentative chamber,  and  meant  to  show  the  more  aristo- 
cratic branch  that  the  sovereign  people  had  spoken 
at  last. 

By  the  time  Philip's  war  had  broken  out,  in  1675, 
taverns  had  become  so  numerous  that  Cotton  Mather 
has  said  that  every  other  house  in  Boston  was  one. 
Indeed,  the  calamity  of  the  war  itself  was  attributed 
to  the  number  of  tippling-houses  in  the  colony.  At 
any  rate  this  was  one  of  the  alleged  sins  which,  in  the 
opinion  of  Mather,  had  called  down  upon  the  colony 
the  frown  of  Providence.  A  century  later,  Governor 
Pownall  repeated  Mather's  statement.  So  it  is  quite 
evident  that  the  increase  of  taverns,  both  good  and  bad, 
had  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  country. 

It  is  certain  that,  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing, some  of  the  old  laws  affecting  the  drinking  habits 
of  society  were  openly  disregarded.  Drinking  healths, 
for  instance,  though  under  the  ban  of  the  law,  was  still 
practised  in  Cotton  Mather's  day  by  those  who  met 
at  the  social  board.  We  find  him  defending  it  as  a 
common  form  of  politeness,  and  not   the   invocation   of 


THE    TAVERN   AS    AN   INSTITUTION.  15 

Heaven  it  had  once  been  in  the  days  of  chivalry.  Drink- 
ing at  funerals,  weddings,  church-raisings,  and  even  at 
ordinations,  was  a  thing  everywhere  sanctioned  by  cus- 
tom. The  person  who  should  have  refused  to  furnish 
liquor  on  such  an  occasion  would  have  been  the  subject 
of  remarks  not  at  all  complimentary  to  his  motives. 

It  seems  curious  enough  to  find  that  the  use  of 
tobacco  was  looked  upon  by  the  fathers  of  the  colony 
as  far  more  sinful,  hurtful,  and  degrading  than  indul- 
gence in  intoxicating  liquors.  Indeed,  in  most  of  the 
New  England  settlements,  not  only  the  use  but  the 
planting  of  tobacco  was  strictly  forbidden.  Those  who 
had  a  mind  to  solace  themselves  with  the  interdicted 
weed  could  do  so  only  in  the  most  private  manner.  The 
language  of  the  law  is,  "Nor  shall  any  take  tobacco  in 
any  wine  or  common  victual  house,  except  in  a  private 
room  there,  so  as  the  master  of  said  house  nor  any 
guest  there  shall  take  oflfence  thereat;  which,  if  any  do, 
then  such  person  shall  forbear  upon  pain  of  two  shillings 
sixpence  for  every  sucli  offence." 

It  is  found  on  record  that  two  innocent  Dutchmen, 
who  went  on  a  visit  to  Harvard  College,  —  when  that 
venerable  institution  was  much  younger  than  it  is  to- 
day,—  were  so  nearly  choked  with  tlie  fumes  of  tobacco- 
smoke,  on  first  going  in,  that  one  said  to  the  other, 
"This  is  certainly  a  tavern." 

It  is  also  curious  to  note  that,  in  spite  of  the  steady 
growth  of  the  smoking  habit  among  all  classes  of  people, 
public  opinion  continued  to  u])hold  tlie  laws  directed  to 


2g  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

its  suppression,  though,  from  our  stand-point  of  to-day, 
these  do  seem  uncommonly  severe.  And  this  state  of 
things  existed  down  to  so  late  a  day  that  men  are  now 
living  who  have  been  asked  to  plead  "guilty  or  not 
guilty,"  at  the  bar  of  a  police  court,  for  smoking  in  the 
streets  of  Boston.  A  dawning  sense  of  the  ridiculous, 
it  is  presumed,  led  at  last  to  the  discontinuance  of  ar- 
rests for  this  cause;  but  for  some  time  longer  officers 
were  in  the  habit  of  inviting  detected  smokers  to  show 
respect  for  the  memory  of  a  defunct  statute  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, by  throwing  their  cigars  into  the  gutter. 

Turning  to  practical  considerations,  we  shall  find  the 
tavern  holding  an  important  relation  to  its  locality.  In 
the  first  place,  it  being  so  nearly  coeval  with  the  laying 
out  of  villages,  the  tavern  quickly  became  the  one  known 
landmark  for  its  particular  neighborhood.  For  instance, 
in  Boston  alone,  the  names  Seven  Star  Lane,  Orange 
Tree  Lane,  Eed  Lion  Lane,  Black  Horse  Lane,  Sun 
Court,  Cross  Street,  Bull  Lane,  not  to  mention  others 
that  now  have  so  outlandish  a  sound  to  sensitive  ears, 
were  all  derived  from  taverns.  We  risk  little  in  saying 
that  a  Bostonian  in  London  would  think  the  great  me- 
tropoHs  strangely  altered  for  the  worse  should  he  find 
such  hallowed  names  as  Charing  Cross,  Bishopsgate,  or 
Temple  Bar  replaced  by  those  of  some  wealthy  Smith, 
Brown,  or  Robinson ;  yet  he  looks  on,  while  the  same 
sort  of  vandalism  is  constantly  going  on  at  home,  with 
hardly  a  murmur  of  disapproval,  so  differently  does  the 
same  thing  look  from  different  points  of  view. 


TEE    TAVERN  AS   AN  INSTITUTION. 


17 


As  further  fixing  the  topographical  character  of  tav- 
erns, it  may  be  stated  that  in  the  old  almanacs  dis- 
tances are  always  computed  between  the  inns,  instead 
of  from  town  to  town,  as  the  practice  now  is. 

Of  course  such  topographical  distinctions  as  we  have 
pointed  out  began  at  a  time  when  there  were  few  public 
buildings ;  but  the  idea  almost  amounts  to  an  instinct, 
because  even  now  it  is  a  common  habit  with  every  one 
to  first  direct  the  inquiring  stranger  to  some  prominent 
landmark.  As  such,  tavern-signs  were  soon  known  and 
noted  by  all  travellers. 


SIGN    OF    THE    L&JilB. 


Then  again,  tavern-titles  are,  in  most  cases,  traced 
back  to  the  old  country.  Love  for  the  old  home  and 
its  associations  made  the  colonist  like  to  take  his  mug 
of  ale  under  the  same  sign  that  he  had  patronized  when 
in  England.  It  was  a  never-failing  reminiscence  to  him. 
And   innkeepers   knew  how  to   appeal   to   this   feeling. 


18 


OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 


Hence  the  Eed  Lion  and  the  Lamb,  the  St.  George  and 
the  Green  Dragon,  the  Black,  White,  and  Eed  Horse, 
the  Sun,  Seven  Stars,  and  Globe,  were  each  and  all  so 
many  reminiscences  of  Old  London.  In  their  way  they 
denote  the  same  sort  of  tie  that  is  perpetuated  by  the 
Bostons,  Portsmouths,  Falmouths,  and  other  names  of 
English  origin. 


II 


TIFE    EARLrER    ORDINARIES. 


S  early  as  1638  there  were  at  least  two  ordi- 
naries, as  taverns  were  then  called,  in  Boston. 
That  they  were  no  ordinary  taverns  will  at 
once  occur  to  every  one  who  considers  the  means  then 
employed  to  secure  sobriety  and  good  order  in  them. 
For  example,  Josselyn  says  that  when  a  stranger  went 
into  one  for  the  purpose  of  refreshing  the  inner  man, 
he  presently  found  a  constable  at  his  elbow,  who,  it 
appeared,  was  there  to  see  to  it  that  the  guest  called 
for  no  more  liquor  than  seemed  good  for  him.  If  he 
did  so,  the  beadle  peremptorily  countermanded  the 
order,  himself  fixing  the  quantity  to  be  drank ;  and  from 
his  decision  there  was  no  appeal. 

Of  these  early  ordinaries  the  earliest  known  to  be 
licensed  goes  as  far  back  as  1634,  when  Samuel  Cole, 
comfit-maker,  kept  it.  A  kind  of  interest  naturally 
goes  with  the  spot  of  ground  on  which  this  the  first 
house  of  public  entertainment  in  the  New  England 
metropolis  stood.  On  this  point  all  the  early  authori- 
ties seem  to  have  been  at  fault.     Misled  by  the  meagre 

19 


20  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

record  in  the  Book  of  Possessions,  the  zealous  antiqua- 
ries of  former  years  had  always  located  Cole's  Inn  in 
what  is  now  Merchants'  Eow.  Since  Thomas  Lechford's 
Note  Book  has  been  printed,  the  copy  of  a  deed,  dated 
in  the  year  1638,  in  which  Cole  conveys  part  of  his 
dwelling,  with  brew-house,  etc.,  has  been  brought  to 
light.  The  estate  noted  here  is  the  one  situated  next 
northerly  from  the  well-known  Old  Corner  Bookstore, 
on  Washington  Street.  It  would,  therefore,  appear,  be- 
yond reasonable  doubt,  that  Cole's  Inn  stood  in  what 
was  already  the  high  street  of  the  town,  nearly  opposite 
Governor  Winthrop's,  which  gives  greater  point  to  my 
Lord  Leigh's  refusal  to  accept  Winthrop's  proffered  hos- 
pitality when  his  lordship  was  sojourning  under  Cole's 
roof-tree. 

In  his  New  England  Tragedies,  Mr.  Longfellow  intro- 
duces Cole,  who  is  made  to  say, — 

"  But  the  '  Three  ISIariners '  is  an  orderly, 
INIost  orderly,  quiet,  and  respectable  house." 

Cole,  certainly,  could  have  had  no  other  than  a  poet's 
license  for  calling  his  house  by  this  name,  as  it  is  never 
mentioned  otherwise  than  as  Cole's  Inn. 

Another  of  these  worthy  landlords  was  William  Hud- 
son, who  had  leave  to  keep  an  ordinary  in  1640.  From 
his  occupation  of  baker,  he  easily  stepped  into  the  con- 
genial employment  of  innkeeper.  Hudson  was  among 
the  earliest  settlers  of  Boston,  and  for  many  years  is 
found  most  active  in  town  affairs.     His  name  is  on  the 


THE    EARLIER    ORDINARIES.  21 

list  of  those  who  were  admitted  freemen  of  the  Colony, 
in  May,  1631.  As  his  son  William  also  followed  the 
same  calling,  the  distinction  of  Senior  and  Junior  be- 
comes necessary  when  speaking  of  them. 

Hudson's  house  is  said  to  have  stood  on  the  ground 
now  occupied  by  the  New  England  Bank,  which,  if  true, 
would  make  this  the  most  noted  of  tavern  stands  in  all 
New  England,  or  rather  in  all  the  colonies,  as  the  same 
site  afterward  became  known  as  the  Bunch  of  Grapes. 
"We  shall  have  much  occasion  to  notice  it  under  that 
title.  In  Hudson's  time  the  appearance  of  things  about 
this  locality  was  very  different  from  what  is  seen  to-day. 
All  the  earlier  topographical  features  have  been  obliter- 
ated. Then  the  tide  flowed  nearly  up  to  the  tavern 
door,  so  making  the  spot  a  landmark  of  the  ancient 
shore  line  as  the  first  settlers  had  found  it.  Even  so 
simple  a  statement  as  this  will  serve  to  show  us  how 
difficult  is  the  task  of  fixing,  with  approximate  accuracy, 
residences  or  sites  on  the  water  front,  going  as  far  back 
as  the  original  occupants  of  the  soil. 

Next  in  order  of  time  comes  the  house  called  the 
King's  Arms.  This  celebrated  inn  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  dock,  in  what  is  now  Dock  Square.  Hugh  Gunnison, 
victualler,  kept  a  "  cooke's  shop "  in  his  dwelhng  there 
some  time  before  1642,  as  he  was  then  allowed  to  sell 
beer.  The  next  year  he  humbly  prayed  the  court  for 
leave  "  to  draw  the  wyne  which  was  spent  in  his  house," 
in  the  room  of  having  his  customers  get  it  elsewhere, 
and  then   come  into  his  place  the  worse   for  liquor, — 


22  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

a  proceeding  which  he  justly  thought  unfair  as  well  as 
unprofitable  dealing.  He  asks  this  favor  in  order  that 
"  God  be  not  dishonored  nor  his  people  grieved." 

We  know  that  Gunnison  was  favored  with  the  custom 
of  the  General  Court,  because  we  find  that  body  voting 
to  defray  the  expenses  incurred  for  being  entertained  in 
his  house  "  out  of  y**  custom  of  wines  or  y^  wampum  of 
y®  Narragansetts." 

Gunnison's  house  presently  took  the  not  always  popu- 
lar name  of  the  King's  Arms,  wdiich  it  seems  to  have 
kept  until  the  general  overturning  of  thrones  in  the  Old 
Country  moved  the  Puritan  rulers  to  order  the  taking 
down  of  the  King's  arms,  and  setting  up  of  the  State's 
in  their  stead;  for,  until  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts, 
the  tavern  is  the  same,  we  think,  known  as  the  State's 
Arms.  It  then  loyally  resumed  its  old  insignia  again. 
Such  little  incidents  show  us  how  taverns  frequently 
denote  the  fluctuation  of  popular  opinion. 

As  Gunnison's  bill  of  fare  has  not  come  down  to  us, 
we  are  at  a  loss  to  know  just  how  the  colonial  fathers 
fared  at  his  hospitable  board ;  but  so  long  as  the  '  treat ' 
was  had  at  the  public  expense  we  cannot  doubt  that 
the  dinners  were  quite  as  good  as  the  larder  afforded, 
or  that  full  justice  was  done  to  the  contents  of  mine 
host's  cellar  by  those  worthy  legislators  and  lawgivers. 

When  Hugh  Gunnison  sold  out  the  King's  Arms  to 
Henry  Shrimpton  and  others,  in  1651,  for  £600  sterling, 
tlie  rooms  in  his  house  all  bore  some  distinguishing 
name  or  title.     For  instance,  one    chamber  was   called 


THE   EARLIER    ORDINARIES.  23 

the  "Exchange."  We  have  sometimes  wondered  whether 
it  was  so  named  in  consequence  of  its  use  by  merchants 
of  the  town  as  a  regular  place  of  meeting.  The  chamber 
referred  to  was  furnished  with  "  one  half-headed  bedstead 
with  blew  pillars."  ,  There  was  also  a  "  Court  Chamber," 
which,  doubtless,  was  the  one  assigned  to  the  General 
Court  when  dining  at  Gunnison's.  Still  other  rooms  went 
by  such  names  as  the  "  London  "  and  "  Star."  The  hall 
contained  three  small  rooms,  or  stalls,  with  a  bar  con- 
venient to  it.  This  room  was  for  public  use,  but  the 
apartments  upstairs  were  for  the  "  quality  "  alone,  or  for 
those  who  paid  for  the  privilege  of  being  private.  All 
remember  how,  in  "  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,"  Miss  Hard- 
castle  is  made  to  say :  "  Attend  the  Lion,  there !  —  Pipes 
and  tobacco  for  the  Angel !  —  The  Lamb  has  been  out- 
rageous this  half  hour  !  " 

The  Castle  Tavern  was  another  house  of  public  resort, 
kept  by  William  Hudson,  Jr.,  at  what  is  now  the  upper 
corner  of  Elm  Street  and  Dock  Square.  Just  at  what 
time  this  noted  tavern  came  into  being  is  a  matter  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  be  determined ;  but,  as  we  find  a 
colonial  order  billeting  soldiers  in  it  in  1656,  we  con- 
clude it  to  have  been  a  public  inn  at  that  early  day. 
At  this  time  Hudson  is  styled  lieutenant.  If  Whitman's 
records  of  the  Artillery  Company  be  taken  as  correct, 
the  younger  Hudson  had  seen  service  in  the  wars.  With 
"  divers  other  of  our  best  military  men,"  he  had  crossed 
the  ocean  to  take  service  in  the  Parliamentary  forces,  in 
which  he  held  the  rank   of  ensign,  returning  home  to 


24  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

New  England,  after  an  absence  of  two  years,  to  find  his 
wife  publicly  accused  of  faithlessness  to  her  marriage 
vows. 

The  presence  of  these  old  inns  at  the  head  of  the 
town  dock  naturally  points  to  tli^at  locality  as  the 
business  centre,  and  it  continued  to  hold  that  relation 
to  the  commerce  of  Boston  until,  by  the  building  of 
wharves  and  piers,  ships  were  enabled  to  come  up  to 
them  for  the  purpose  of  unloading.  Before  that  time 
their  cargoes  were  landed  in  boats  and  lighters.  Far 
back,  in  the  beginning  of  things,  when  everything  had 
to  be  transported  by  water  to  and  from  the  neighboring 
settlements,  this  was  naturally  the  busiest  place  in 
Boston.  In  time  Dock  Square  became,  as  its  name  in- 
dicates, a  sort  of  delta  for  the  confluent  lanes  running 
down  to  the  dock  below  it. 

Here,  for  a  time,  was  centred  all  the  movement  to 
and  from  the  shipping,  and,  we  may  add,  about  all  the 
commerce  of  the  infant  settlement.  Naturally  the  vicin- 
ity was  most  convenient  for  exposing  for  sale  all  sorts 
of  merchandise  as  it  was  landed,  which  fact  soon  led  to 
the  establishment  of  a  corn  market  on  one  side  of  the 
dock  and  a  fish  market  on  the  other  side. 

The  Royal  Exchange  stood  on  the  site  of  the  Mer- 
chants' Bank,  in  State  Street.  In  this  high-sounding 
name  we  find  a  sure  sign  that  the  town  had  outgrown 
its  old  traditions  and  was  making  progress  toward  more 
citified  ways.  As  time  wore  on  a  town-house  had  been 
built  in  the   market-place.     Its   ground  floor  was   pur- 


THE   EARLIER    ORDINARIES.  25 

posely  left  open  for  the  citizens  to  walk  about,  discuss 
the  news,  or  bargain  in.  In  the  popular  phrase,  they 
were  said  to  meet  "on  'change,"  and  thereafter  this 
place  of  meeting  was  known  as  the  Exchange,  which 
name  the  tavern  and  lane  soon  took  to  themselves  as 
a  natural  right. 

A  glance  at  the  locality  in  question  shows  the  choice 
to  have  been  made  with  a  shrewd  eye  to  the  future. 
For  example :  the  house  fronted  upon  the  town  market- 
place, where,  on  stated  days,  fairs  or  markets  for  the 
sale  of  country  products  were  held.  On  one  side  the 
tavern  was  flanked  by  the  well-trodden  lane  which  led 
to  the  town  dock.  From  daily  chafiering  in  a  small 
way,  those  who  wished  to  buy  or  sell  came  to  meet 
here  regularly.  It  also  became ,  the  place  for  popular 
gatherings,  —  on  such  occasions  of  ceremony  as  the  pub- 
lishing of  proclamations,  mustering  of  troops,  or  punish- 
ment of  criminals,  —  all  of  which  vindicates  its  title  to 
be  called  the  heart  of  the  little  commonwealth. 

Indeed,  on  this  spot  the  pulse  of  its  daily  life  beat 
with  ever-increasing  vigor.  Hither  came  the  country 
people,  with  their  donkeys  and  panniers.  Here  in  the 
open  air  they  set  up  their  little  booths  to  tempt  the 
town's  folk  with  the  display  of  fresh  country  butter, 
cheese  and  eggs,  fruits  or  vegetaldes.  Here  came  the 
citizen,  with  his  basket  on  his  arm,  exchanging  his 
stock  of  news  or  opinions  as  lie  bargained  for  his 
dinner,  and  so  caught  the  drift  of  popular  sentiment 
beyond  his  own  chimney-corner. 


26  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

To  loiter  a  little  longer  at  the  sign  of  the  Boyal 
Exchange,  which,  by  all  accounts,  always  drew  the  best 
custom  of  the  town,  we  find  that,  as  long  ago  as  Luke 
Vardy's  time,  it  was  a  favorite  resort  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity,  Vardy  being  a  brother  of  the  order.  Accord- 
ing to  a  poetic  squib  of  the  time, — 

"  'Twas  he  who  oft  dispelled  their  sadness, 
And  filled  the  breth'ren's  hearts  with  gladness." 

After  the  burning  of  the  town-house,  near  by,  in  the 
winter  of  1747,  had  turned  the  General  Court  out  of 
doors,  that  body  finished  its  sessions  at  Vardy's ;  nor  do 
we  find  any  record  of  legislation  touching  Luke's  tap- 
room on  that  occasion. 

Vardy's  was  the  resort  of  the  young  bloods  of  the 
town,  who  spent  their  evenings  in  drinking,  gaming,  or 
recounting  their  love  affairs.  One  July  evening,  in  1728, 
two  young  men  belonging  to  the  first  families  in  the 
province  quarreled  over  their  cards  or  wine.  A  chal- 
lenge passed.  At  that  time  the  sword  was  the  weapon 
of  gentlemen.  The  parties  repaired  to  a  secluded  part 
of  the  Common,  stripped  for  the  encounter,  and  fought 
it  out  by  the  light  of  the  moon.  After  a  few  passes 
one  of  the  combatants,  named  Woodbridge,  received  a 
mortal  thrust;  the  survivor  was  hurried  off  by  his 
friends  on  board  a  ship,  which  immediately  set  sail. 
This  being  the  first  duel  ever  fought  in  the  town,  it 
naturally  made  a  great  stir. 

We  cannot  leave  the  neighborhood  without  at  least 


THE   EARLIER    ORDINARIES.  27 

making  mention  of  the  Massacre  of  the  5th  of  March, 
1770,  which  took -place  in  front  of  the  tavern.  It 
was  then  a  three-story  brick  house,  the  successor,  it  is 
believed,  of  the  first  building  erected  on  the  spot  and 
destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  1711.  On  the  opposite 
corner  of  the  lane  stood  the  Eoyal  Custom  House,  where 
a  sentry  was  walking  his  lonely  round  on  that  frosty 
night,  little  dreaming  of  the  part  he  was  to  play  in  the 
coming  tragedy.  With  the  assault  made  by  the  mob 
on  this  sentinel,  the  fatal  affray  began  which  sealed 
the  cause  of  the  colonists  with  their  blood.  At  this 
time  the  tavern  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  the  newly 
arrived  British  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  as  well  as 
of  citizens  or  placemen,  of  the  Tory  party,  so  that  its 
inmates  must  have  witnessed,  with  peculiar  feelings, 
every  incident  of  that  night  of  terror.  Consequently 
the  house  with  its  sign  is  shown  in  Eevere's  well-known 
picture  of  the  massacre. 

One  more  old  hostelry  in  this  vicinity  merits  a  word 
from  us.  Though  not  going  so  far  back  or  coming  down 
to  so  late  a  date  as  some  of  the  houses  already  men- 
tioned, nevertheless  it  has  ample  claim  not  to  be  passed 
by  in  silence. 

The  Anchor,  otherwise  the  "Blew  Anchor,"  stood  on 
the  ground  now  occupied  by  the  Globe  newspaper  build- 
ing. In  early  times  it  divided  with  the  State's  Arms 
the  patronage  of  the  magistrates,  who  seem  to  have 
had  a  custom,  perhaps  not  yet  quite  out  of  date,  of 
adjourning   to   the   ordinary  over   the  way  after  trans- 


28  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

acting  the  business  which  had  brought  them  together. 
So  we  find  that  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies, 
and  even  the  reverend  clergy,  when  they  were  summoned 
to  the  colonial  capital  to  attend  a  synod,  were  usually 
entertained  here  at  the  Anchor. 

This  fact  presupposes  a  house  having  what  we  should 
now  call  the  latest  improvements,  or  at  least  possessing 
some  advantages  over  its  older  rivals  in  the  excellence 
of  its  table  or  cellarage.  When  Eobert  T\irner  kept  it, 
his  rooms  were  distinguished,  after  the  manner  of  the 
old  London  inns,  as  the  Cross  Keys,  Green  Dragon, 
Anchor  and  Castle  Chamber,  Eose  and  Sun,  Low  Eoom, 
so  making  old  associations  bring  in  custom. 

It  was  in  1686  that  John  Dunton,  a  London  bookseller 
whom  Pope  lampoons  in  the  "  Dunciad,"  came  over  to 
Boston  to  do  a  little  business  in  the  bookselling  line. 
The  vicinity  of  the  town-house  was  then  crowded  with 
book -shops,  all  of  which  drove  a  thriving  trade  in  print- 
ing and  selling  sermons,  almanacs,  or  fugitive  essays  of 
a  sort  now  quite  unknown  outside  of  a  few  eager  col- 
lectors. The  time  was  a  critical  one  in  New  England,  as 
she  was  feeling  the  tremor  of  the  coming  revolt  which 
sent  King  James  into  exile;  yet  to  read  Dun  ton's  ac- 
count of  men  and  things  as  he  thought  he  saw  them, 
one  would  imagine  him  just  dropped  into  Arcadia,  rather 
than  breathing  the  threatening  atmosphere  of  a  country 
that  was  tottering  on  the  edge  of  revolution. 

But  it  is  to  him,  at  any  rate,  that  we  are  indebted 
for  a  portrait  of  the  typical  landlord, — one  whom  we 


THE    EARLIER    ORDINARIES.  29 

feel  at  once  we  should  like  to  have  known,  and,  having 
known,  to  cherish  in  our  memory.  With  a  flourish  of 
his  goose-quill  Dunton  introduces  us  to  George  Monk, 
landlord  of  the  Anchor,  who,  somehow,  reminds  us  of 
Chaucer's  Harry  Bailly,  and  Ben  Jonson's  Goodstock. 
And  we  more  than  susj^ect  from  what  follows  that 
Dunton  had  tasted  the  "Anchor"  Madeira,  not  only 
once,  but  again. 

George  Monk,  mine  host  of  the  Anchor,  Dunton  tells 
us,  was  "  a  person  so  remarkable  that,  had  I  not  been 
acquainted  with  him,  it  would  be  a  hard  matter  to 
make  any  New  England  man  believe  that  I  had  been 
in  Boston;  for  there  was  no  one  house  in  all  the  town 
more  noted,  or  where  a  man  might  meet  with  better 
accommodation.  Besides  he  was  a  brisk  and  jolly  man, 
whose  conversation  was  coveted  by  all  his  guests  as 
the  life  and  spirit  of  the  company." 

In  this  off-hand  sketch  we  behold  the  traditional  pub- 
lican, now,  alas !  extinct.  Gossip,  newsmonger,  banker, 
pawnbroker,  expediter  of  men  or  effects,  the  intimate 
association  so  long  existing  between  landlord  and  pul)lic 
under  the  old  r(^gime  everywhere  brought  about  a  still 
closer  one  among  the  guild  itself,  so  establishing  a  net- 
work of  communication  coextensive  with  all  the  great 
routes  from  Maine  to  Georgia. 

Situated  just  "  around  the  corner "  from  the  council- 
chamber,  the  Anchor  became,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
favorite  haunt  of  members  of  the  government,  and  so 
acquired   something   of   an    official  character  and  stand- 


30  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

ing.  We  have  strong  reason  to  believe  that,  under  the 
mellowing  influence  of  the  punch-bowl,  those  antique 
men  of  iron  mould  and  mien  could  now  and  then  crack 
a  grim  jest  or  tell  a  story  or  possibly  troll  a  love-ditty, 
with  grave  gusto.  At  any  rate,  we  find  Chief  Justice 
Sewall  jotting  down  in  his  "Diary"  the  familiar  sentence, 
"The  deputies  treated  and  I  treated."  And,  to  tell  the 
truth,  we  would  much  prefer  to  think  of  the  colonial 
fathers  as  possessing  even  some  human  frailties  rather 
than  as  the  statues  now  replacing  their  living  forms 
and  features  in  our  streets. 

But  now  and  then  w^e  can  imagine  the  noise  of  great 
merriment  making  the  very  windows  of  some  of  these 
old  hostelries  rattle  again.  We  learn  that  the  Grey- 
hound was  a  respectable  public  house,  situated  in  Eox- 
bury,  and  of  very  early  date  too ;  for  the  venerable  and 
saintly  Eliot  lived  upon  one  side  and  his  pious  colleague, 
Samuel  Danforth,  on  the  other.  Yet  notwithstanding 
its  being,  as  it  were,  hedged  in  between  two  such  emi- 
nent pillars  of  the  church,  the  godly  Danforth  bitterly 
complains  of  the  provocation  which  frequenters  of  the 
tavern  sometimes  tried  him  withal,  and  naively  informs 
us  that,  when  from  his  study  windows  he  saw  any  of 
the  town  dwellers  loitering  there  he  would  go  down 
and  "chide  them  away." 

It  is  related  in  the  memoirs  of  the  celebrated  Indian 
fighter,  Captain  Benjamin  Church,  that  he  and  Captain 
Converse  once  found  themselves  in  the  neighborhood  of 
a  tavern  at  the  South  End  of  Boston.     As  old  comrades 


THE   EARLIER    ORDINARIES.  31 

they  wished  to  go  in  and  take  a  parting  glass  together; 
but,  on  searching  their  pockets,  Church  could  find  only 
sixpence  and  Converse  not  a  penny  to  bless  himself 
with,  so  they  were  compelled  to  forego  this  pledge  of 
friendship  and  part  with  thirsty  lips.  Going  on  to 
Eoxbury,  Church  luckily  found  an  old  neighbor  of  his, 
who  generously  lent  him  money  enough  to  get  home 
with.  He  tells  the  anecdote  in  order  to  show  to  what 
straits  the  parsimony  of  the  Massachusetts  rulers  had 
reduced  him,  their  great  captain,  to  whom  the  colony 
owed  so  much. 

The  Red  Lion,  in  North  Street,  was  one  of  the  oldest 
public  houses,  if  not  the  oldest,  to  be  opened  at  the 
North  End  of  the  town.  It  stood  close  to  the  waterside, 
the  adjoining  wharf  and  the  lane  running  down  to  it 
both  belonging  to  the  house  and  both  taking  its  name. 
The  old  Eed  Lion  Lane  is  now  Eichmond  Street,  and 
the  wharf  has  been  filled  up,  so  making  identification 
of  the  old  sites  difficult,  to  say  the  least.  Nicholas  Up- 
shall,  the  stout-hearted  Quaker,  kept  the  Red  Lion  as 
early  as  1654.  At  his  death  the  land  on  which  tavern 
and  brewhouse  stood  went  to  his  children.  When  the 
persecution  of  his  sect  began  in  earnest,  Upshall  was 
thrown  into  Boston  jail,  for  his  outspoken  condemnation 
of  the  authorities  and  their  rigorous  proceedings  toward 
this  people.  He  was  first  doomed  to  perpetual  imprison- 
ment. A  long  and  grievous  confinement  at  last  broke 
Upshall's  health,  if  it  did  not,  ultimately,  prove  the 
cause  of  his  death. 


32  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

The  Ship  Tavern  stood  at  the  head  of  Clark's  Wharf, 
or  on  the  southwest  corner  of  North  and  Clark  streets, 
according  to  present  boundaries.  It  was  an  ancient 
brick  building,  dating  as  far  back  as  1650  at  least. 
John  Vyal  kept  it  in  1663.  When  Clark's  Wharf  was 
built  it  was  the  principal  one  of  the  town.  Large  ships 
came  directly  up  to  it,  so  making  the  tavern  a  most 
convenient  resort  for  masters  of  vessels  or  their  passen- 
gers, and  associating  it  with  the  locality  itself.  King 
Charles's  commissioners  lodged  at  Vyal's  house,  when 
they  undertook  the  task  of  bringing  down  the  pride  of 
the  rulers  of  the  colony  a  peg.  One  of  them.  Sir  Eobert 
Carr,  pummeled  a  constable  who  attempted  to  arrest  him 
in  this  house.  He  afterward  refused  to  obey  a  summons 
to  answer  for  the  assault  before  the  magistrates,  loftily 
alleging  His  Majesty's  commission  as  superior  to  any 
local  mandate  whatever.  He  thus  retaliated  Governor 
Leverett's  affront  to  the  commissioners  in  keeping  his  hat 
on  his  head  when  their  authority  to  act  was  being  read 
to  the  council.  But  Leverett  was  a  man  who  had  served 
under  Cromwell,  and  had  no  love  for  the  cavaliers  or 
they  for  him.  The  commissioners  sounded  trumpets  and 
made  proclamations ;  but  the  colony  kept  on  the  even 
tenor  of  its  way,  in  defiance  of  tlfe  royal  mandate,  equally 
regardless  of  the  storm  gathering  about  it,  as  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  conflict  in  which  it  was  about  to 
plunge,  all  unarmed  and  unprepared. 


III 


IN    REVOIiUTIONARY    TII^IES. 

UCH  thoroughfares  as  King  Street,  just  before 
the  Eevolution,  were  filled  with  horsemen,  don- 
keys, oxen,  and  long-tailed  trucks,  with  a  sprink- 
ling of  one-horse  chaises  and  coaches  of  the  kind  seen 
in  Hogarth's  realistic  pictures  of  London  life.  To  these 
should  be  added  the  chimney-sweeps,  wood-sawyers, 
market-women,  soldiers,  and  sailors,  who  are  now  quite 
as  much  out  of  date  as  tlie  vehicles  themselves  are. 
There  being  no  sidewalks,  tlie  narrow  footway  was  pro- 
tected, here  and  there,  sometimes  by  posts,  sometimes  by 
an  old  cannon  set  upright  at  the  corners,  so  that  the 
traveller  dismounted  from  his  horse  or  alighted  from 
coach  or  chaise  at  the  very  threshold. 

Next  in  the  order  of  antiquity,  as  well  as  fame,  to 
the  taverns  already  named,  comes  the  Bunch  of  Grapes 
in  King,  now  State  Street.  The  plain  three-story  stone 
building  situated  at  the  upper  corner  of  Kilby  Street 
stands  where  the  once  celebrated  tavern  did.  Three 
gilded  clusters  of  grapes  dangled  temptingly  over  the 
door  before  the  eye  of  the  passer-by.     Apart  from  its 

33 


34  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

palate-tickling  suggestions,  a  pleasant  aroma  of  antiquity 
surrounds  this  symbol,  so  dear  to  all  devotees  of  Bacchus 


THE    BUNCH    OP    GRAPES. 

from  immemorial  time.  In  Measure  for  Measure  the 
clown  says,  '"Twas  in  the  Bunch  of  Grapes,  where  in- 
deed you  have  a  delight  to  sit,  have  you  not?"  And 
Froth  answers,  "I  have  so,  because  it  is  an  open  room 
and  good  for  winter." 

This  house  goes  back  to  the  year  1712,  when  Francis 
Holmes  kept  it,  and  perhaps  further  still,  though  we  do 
not  meet  with  it  under  this  title  before  Holmes's  time. 
From  that  time,  until  after  the  Eevolution,  it  appears  to 
have  always  been  open  as  a  public  inn,  and,  as  such,  is 
feelingly  referred  to  by  one  old  traveller  as  the  best 
punch-house  to  be  found  in  all  Boston. 

When  the  line  came  to  be  drawn  between  conditional 
loyalty,  and  loyalty  at  any  rate,  the  Bunch  of  Grapes 
became  the  resort  of  the  High  Whigs,  who  made  it  a 
sort  of  political  headquarters,  in  which  patriotism  only 
passed  current,  and  it  was  known  as  the  Whig  tavera 


IN   REVOLUTIONARY    TIMES.  35 

With  military  occupation  and  bayonet  rule,  still  further 
intensifying  public  feeling,  the  line  between  Whig  and 
Tory  houses  was  drawn  at  the  threshold.  It  was  then 
kept  by  Marston.  Cold  welcome  awaited  the  appear- 
ance of  scarlet  regimentals  or  a  Tory  phiz  there ;  so 
gentlemen  of  that  side  of  politics  also  formed  cliques 
of  their  own  at  other  houses,  in  which  the  talk  and 
the  toasts  were  more  to  their  liking,  and  where  they 
could  abuse  the  Yankee  rebels  over  their  port  to  their 
heart's  content. 

But,  apart  from  political  considerations,  one  or  two 
incidents  have  given  the  Bunch  of  Grapes  a  kind  of 
pre-eminence  over  all  its  contemporaries,  and,  therefore, 
ought  not  to  be  passed  over  when  the  house  is  men- 
tioned. 

On  Monday,  July  30,  1733,  the  first  grand  lodge  of 
Masons  in  America  was  organized  here  by  Henry  Price, 
a  Boston  tailor,  who  had  received  authority  from  Lord 
Montague,  Grand  Master  of  England,  for  the  purpose. 

Again,  upon  the  evacuation  of  Boston  by  the  royal 
troops,  this  house  became  the  centre  for  popular  demon- 
strations. First,  His  Excellency,  General  Washington, 
was  handsomely  entertained  there.  Some  months  later, 
after  hearing  the  Declaration  read  from  the  balcony  of 
the  Town-house,  the  populace,  having  thus  made  their 
appeal  to  the  King  of  kings,  proceeded  to  pull  down 
from  the  public  buildings  the  royal  arms  wliicli  had  dis- 
tinguished them,  and,  gathering  them  in  a  heap  in  front 
of  the  tavern,  made  a  bonfire  of  them,  little  imagining, 


36  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

we  think,  that  the  time  would  ever  come  when  the  act 
would  be  looked  upon  as  vandalism  on  their  part. 

General  Stark's  timely  victory  at  Bennington  was  cele- 
brated with  all  the  more  heartiness  of  enthusiasm  in 
Boston  because  the  people  had  been  quaking  with  fear 
ever  since  the  fall  of  Ticonderoga  sent  dismay  through- 
out New  England.  The  affair  is  accurately  described  in 
the  following  letter,  written  by  a  prominent  actor,  and 
soinff  to  show  how  such  things  were  done  in  the  times 
that  not  only  tried  men's  souls,  but  would  seem  also  to 
have  put  their  stomachs  to  a  pretty  severe  test.  The 
writer  says :  — 

"  In  consequence  of  this  news  we  kept  it  up  in  high 
taste.  At  sundown  about  one  hundred  of  the  first 
gentlemen  of  the  town,  with  all  the  strangers  then  in 
Boston,  met  at  the  Bunch  of  Grapes,  where  good  liquors 
and  a  side-table  were  provided.  In  the  street  were  two 
brass  field-pieces  with  a  detachment  of  Colonel  Craft's 
regiment.  In  the  balcony  of  the  Town-house  all  the 
fifes  and  drums  of  my  regiment  were  stationed.  The 
ball  opened  with  a  discharge  of  thirteen  cannon,  and 
at  every  toast  given  three  rounds  were  fired  and  a  flight 
of  rockets  sent  up.  About  nine  o'clock  two  barrels  of 
grog  were  brought  out  into  the  street  for  the  people 
that  had  collected  there.  It  was  all  conducted  with 
the  greatest  propriety,  and  by  ten  o'clock  every  man 
was  at  his  home." 

Shortly  after  this  General  Stark  himself  arrived  in 
town  and  was  right  royally  entertained  here,  at  that  time 


IN    EEVOLUTWXARY    TIMES.  37 

presenting  the  trophies  now  adorning  the  Senate  Cham- 
ber. On  his  return  from  France  in  1780  Lafayette  was 
also  received  at  this  house  with  all  the  honors,  on  ac- 
count of  having  brought  the  news  that  France  had  at 
last  cast  her  puissant  sword  into  the  trembling  balance 
of  our  Eevolutionary  contest. 

But  the  important  event  with  which  the  Bunch  of 
Grapes  is  associated  is,  not  the  reception  of  a  long  line 
of  illustrious  guests,  but  the  organization,  by  a  number 
of  continental  officers,  of  the  Ohio  Company,  under  which 
the  settlement  of  that  great  State  began  in  earnest,  at 
Marietta.  The  leading  spirit  in  this  first  concerted 
movement  of  New  England  toward  the  Great  West  was 
General  Rufus  Putnam,  a  cousin  of  the  more  distin- 
guished officer  of  Eevolutionary  fame. 

Taking  this  house  as  a  sample  of  the  best  that  the 
town  could  afford  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  we 
should  probably  find  a  company  of  about  twenty  persons 
assembled  at  dinner,  who  were  privileged  to  indulge  in 
as  much  familiar  chat  as  they  liked.  No  other  formali- 
ties were  observed  than  such  as  good  breeding  required. 
Two  o'clock  was  the  hour  at  which  all  the  town  dined. 
The  guests  were  called  together  by  the  ringing  of  a  bell 
in  the  street.  They  were  served  with  salmon  in  season, 
veal,  beef,  mutton,  fowl,  ham,  vegetables,  and  pudding,  and 
each  one  had  his  pint  of  Madeira  set  before  him.  The 
carving  was  done  at  the  tal)le  in  the  good  old  English 
way,  each  guest  helping  himself  to  what  he  liked  best. 
Five  shillings  per  day  was  the  usual  charge,  which  was 


38  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

certainly  not  an  exorbitant  one.  In  half  an  hour  after 
the  cloth  was  removed  the  table  was  usually  deserted. 

The  British  Coffee-House  was  one  of  the  tirst  inns  to 
take  to  itself  the  newly  imported  title.  It  stood  on  the 
site  of  the  granite  building  numbered  66  State  Street, 
and  was,  as  its  name  implies,  as  emphatically  the  head- 
quarters of  the  out-and-out  loyalists  as  the  Bunch  of 
Grapes,  over  the  way,  was  of  the  unconditional  Whigs, 
A  notable  thing  about  it  was  the  performance  there  in 

1750,  probably  by  amateurs,  of  Otway's  "Orphan,"  an 
event  which  so  outraged  public  sentiment  as  to  cause 
the  enactment  of  a  law  prohibiting  the  performance  of 
stage  plays  under  severe  penalties. 

Perhaps  an  even  more  notable  occurrence  was  the 
formation  in  this  house  of  the  first  association  in  Boston 
taking  to  itself  the  distinctive  name  of  a  Club.  The 
Merchants'  Club,  as  it  was  called,  met  here  as  early  as 

1751.  Its  membership  was  not  restricted  to  merchants, 
as  might  be  inferred  from  its  title,  though  they  were  pos- 
sibly in  a  majority,  but  included  crown  officers,  members 
of  the  bar,  military  and  naval  officers  serving  on  the 
station,  and  gentlemen  of  high  social  rank  of  every 
shade  of  opinion.  No  others  were  eligible  to  member- 
ship. 

Up  to  a  certain  time  this  club,  undoubtedly,  repre- 
sented the  best  culture,  the  most  brilliant  wit,  and  most 
delightful  companionship  that  could  be  brought  together 
in  all  the  colonies;  but  when  the  political  sky  grew 
dark  the  old  harmony  was  at  an  end,  and  a  division 


IN  REVOLUTIONARY   TIMES.  39 

became  inevitable,  the  Whigs  going  over  to  the  Bunch 
of  Gra2Jes,  and  thereafter  taking  to  themselves  the  name 
of  the  Whig  Club.i 

Under  date  of  1771,  John  Adams  notes  down  in  his 
Diary  this  item :  "  Spent  the  evening  at  Cordis's,  in  the 
front  room  towards  the  Long  Wharf,  where  the  3fcr- 
chants'  Club  has  met  these  twenty  years.  It  seems 
there  is  a  schism  in  that  church,  a  rent  in  that  gar- 
ment."    Cordis  was  then  the  landlord.^ 

Social  and  business  meetings  of  the  bar  were  also  held 
at  the  Coffee-House,  at  one  of  which  Josiah  Qumcy,  Jr. 
was  admitted.  By  and  by  the  word  "American"  was 
substituted  for  "British"  on  the  Coffee-House  sign,  and 
for  some  time  it  flourished  under  its  new  title  of  the 
American  Coffee-House. 

But  before  the  clash  of  o})inions  had  brought  about 

^  Cordis's  bill  for  a  dinner  given  by  Governor  Hancock  to  the 

Fiisileers  at  this  house   in    1702  is  a  veritable   curiosity  iii  its 

way :  — 

£       s.     p. 
1.3G  Bowls  of  Punch 15     G 

80  Dinners 8 

21  Bottles  of  Sherry 4    14     G 

Brandy 2     G 

2  A  punch-bowl  on  which  is  engraved  the  names  of  seventeen 
members  of  the  old  Whig  Club  is,  or  was,  in  the  possession  of  R. 
C.  Mackay  of  Boston.  Besides  those  already  mentioned,  Dr.  Church, 
Dr.  Young,  Richard  Derby  of  Salem,  Benjamin  Kent,  Nathaniel 
Barber,  William  Mackay,  and  Colonel  Timothy  Bigelow  of  Worces- 
ter were  also  influential  members.  The  Club  corresponded  with 
Wilkes,  Saville,  Barre,  and  Sawbridge,  —  all  leading  Whigs,  and  all 
opponents  of  the  coercive  measures  directed  against  the  Americans. 


40  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

the  secession  just  mentioned,  the  best  room  in  this  house 
held  almost  nightly  assemblages  of  a  group  of  patriotic 
men,  who  were  actively  consolidating  all  the  elements 
of  opposition  into  a  single  force.  Not  inaptly  they  might 
be  called  the  Old  Guard  of  the  Revolution.  The  prin- 
cipals were  Otis,  Gushing,  John  Adams,  Pitts,  Dr.  Warren, 
and  Molyneux.  Probably  no  minutes  of  their  proceed- 
ings were  kept,  for  the  excellent  reason  that  they  verged 
upon,  if  they  did  not  overstep,  the  treasonable. 

His  talents,  position  at  the  bar,  no  less  than  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  questions  which  were  then  so  pro- 
foundly agitating  the  public  mind,  naturally  made  Otis 
the  leader  in  these  conferences,  in  which  the  means  for 
counteracting  the  aggressive  measures  then  being  put 
in  force  by  the  ministry  formed  the  leading  topic  of 
discussion.  His  acute  and  logical  mind,  mastery  of 
public  law,  intensity  of  purpose,  together  with  the  keen 
and  biting  satire  which  he  knew  so  well  how  to  call 
to  his  aid,  procured  for  Otis  the  distinction  of  being  the 
best-hated  man  on  the  Whig  side  of  politics,  because  he 
was  the  one  most  feared.  Whether  in  the  House,  the 
court-room,  the  taverns,  or  elsewhere,  Otis  led  the  van 
of  resistance.  In  military  phrase,  his  policy  was  the 
offensive-defensive.  He  was  no  respecter  of  ignorance  in 
high  places.  Once  when  Governor  Bernard  sneeringly 
interrupted  Otis  to  ask  him  who  the  authority  was 
whom  he  was  citing,  the  patriot  coldly  replied,  "He 
is  a  very  eminent  jurist,  and  none  the  less  so  for  being 
unknown  to  your  Excellency," 


IN   REVOLUTIONARY    TIMES.  41 

It  was  in  the  Coffee-Housc  that  Otis,  in  attempting  to 
pull  a  Tory  nose,  was  set  upon  and  so  brutally  beaten 
by  a  place-man  named  Eobinson,  and  his  friends,  as  to 
ultimately  cause  the  loss  of  his  reason  and  final  with- 
drawal from  public  life.  John  Adams  says  he  was 
"basely  assaulted  by  a  well-dressed  banditti,  with  a 
commissioner  of  customs  at  their  head."  What  they  had 
never  been  able  to  compass  by  fair  argument,  the  Tories 
now  succeeded  in  accomplishing  by  brute  force,  since 
Otis  was  forever  disqualified  from  taking  part  in  the 
struggle  which  he  had  all  along  foreseen  was  coming,  — 
and  which,  indeed,  he  had  done  more  to  bring  about 
than  any  single  man  in  the  colonies. 

Connected  with  this  affair  is  an  anecdote  which  we 
think  merits  a  place  along  with  it.  It  is  related  by 
John  Adams,  who  was  an  interested  listener.  William 
Molyneux  had  a  petition  before  the  legislature  which 
did  not  succeed  to  his  wishes,  and  for  several  evenings 
he  had  wearied  the  company  with  his  complaints  of 
services,  losses,  sacrifices,  etc.,  always  winding  up  with 
saying,  "That  a  man  who  has  behaved  as  I  have  should 
be  treated  as  I  am  is  intolerable,"  with  much  more  to 
the  same  effect.  Otis  had  said  nothing,  but  the  whole 
(ilub  were  disgusted  and  out  of  patience,  when  he  rose 
from  his  seat  with  the  remark,  "Come,  come.  Will, 
quit  this  subject,  and  let  us  enjoy  ourselves.  I  also 
have  a  list  of  grievances ;  will  you  hear  it  ? "  The  club 
expected  some  fun,  so  all  cried  out,  "Ay!  ay!  let 
us  hear  your   list." 


42  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

"Well,  then,  in  the  first  place,  I  resigned  the  office 
of  advocate-general,  which  I  held  from  the  crown,  which 
produced  me  —  how  much  do  you  think  ? " 

"A  great  deal,  no  doubt,"  said  Molyneux. 

"Shall  we  say  two  hundred  sterling  a  year?" 

"Ay,  more,  I  believe,"  said  Molyneux. 

"Well,  let  it  be  two  hundred.  That,  for  ten  years,  is 
two  thousand.  In  the  next  place,  I  have  been  obliged 
to  relinquish  the  greater  part  of  my  business  at  the 
bar.     Will  you  set  that  at  two  hundred  pounds  more  ? " 

"  Oh,  I  believe  it  much  more  than  that ! "  was  the 
answer. 

"  Well,  let  it  be  two  hundred.  This,  for  ten  years, 
makes  two  thousand.  You  allow,  then,  I  have  lost 
four  thousand  pounds  sterling  ?  " 

"Ay,  and  more  too,"  said  Molyneux.  Otis  went 
on:  "In  the  next  place,  I  have  lost  a  hundred  friends, 
among  whom  were  men  of  the  first  rank,  fortune,  and 
power  in  the  province.  At  what  price  will  you  esti- 
mate them  ? " 

"D — n  them!"  said  Molyneux,  "at  nothing.  You 
are  better  off  without  them  than  with  them." 

A  loud  laugh   from  the   company  greeted   this   sally. 

"Be  it  so,"  said  Otis.  "In  the  next  place,  I  have 
made  a  thousand  enemies,  among  whom  are  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  province  and  the  nation.  What  do  you 
think  of  this  item  ?  " 

"That  is  as  it  may  happen,"  said  Molyneux,  reflec- 
tively. 


IN   REVOLUTIONARY    TIMES.  43 

"In  the  next  place,  you  know  I  love  pleasure,  but 
I  have  renounced  pleasure  for  ten  years.  What  is 
that  worth  ?  " 

"  No  great  matter :  you  have  made  politics  your  amuse- 
ment." 

A  hearty  laugh. 

"In  the  next  place,  I  have  ruined  as  fine  health  as 
nature  ever  gave  to  man." 

"  That  is  melancholy  indeed ;  there  is  nothing  to  be 
said  on  that  point,"  Molyneux  replied. 

"Once  more,"  continued  Otis,  holding  down  his  head 
before  Molyneux,  "  look  upon  this  head ! "  ( there  was 
a  deep,  half-closed  scar,  in  which  a  man  might  lay  his 
finger)  — "  and,  what  is  worse,  my  friends  think  I  have 
a  monstrous  crack  in  my  skull."  , 

This  made  all  the  company  look  grave,  and  had  the 
desired  effect  of  making  Molyneux,  who  was  really  a 
good  companion,  heartily  ashamed  of  his  childish  com- 
plaints. 

Another  old  inn  of  assured  celebrity  was  the  Crom- 
well's Head,  in  School  Street.  This  was  a  two-story 
wooden  building  of  venerable  appearance,  conspicuously 
displaying  over  the  footway  a  grim  likeness  of  the 
Lord  Protector,  it  is  said  much  to  the  disgust  of  the 
ultra  royalists,  who,  rather  than  pass  underneath  it, 
habitually  took  the  other  side  of  the  way.  Indeed, 
some  of  the  hot-headed  Tories  were  for  serving  Crom- 
well's Head  as  that  man  of  might  had  served  their 
martyr  king's.     So,  when  the  town  came  under  martial 


44 


OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 


law,  mine  host  Brackett,  whose  family  kept  the  house 
for  half  a  century  or  more,  had  to  take  down  his  sign, 
and  conceal  it  until  such  time  as  the  "  British  hire- 
lings" should  have  made  their  inglorious  exit  from  the 
town. 

After  Braddock's  crushing  defeat  in  the  West,  a  young 
Virginian  colonel,  named  George  Washington,  was  sent 
by  Governor  Dinwiddie  to  confer  with  Governor  Shirley, 
who  was  the  great  war  governor  of  his  day,  as  Andrew 
was  of  our  own,  with  the  difference  that  Shirley  then 
had  the  general  direction  of  military  affairs,  from  the 
Ohio  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  pretty  much  in  his  own 
hands.  Colonel  Washington  took  up  his  quarters  at 
Brackett's,  little  imagining,  perhaps,  that  twenty  years 
later  he  would  enter  Boston  at  the  head  of  a  victorious 
republican  army,  after  having  quartered  his  troops  in 
Governor  Shirley's  splendid   mansion. 

Major-General   the   Marquis   Chastellux,   of   Eocham- 


IN   BEVOLUTIOXARY    TIMES.  45 

beau's  auxiliary  army,  also  lodged  at  the  Cromwell's 
Head  when  he  was  in  Boston  in  1782.  He  met  there 
the  renowned  Paul  Jones,  whose  excessive  vanity  led 
him  to  read  to  the  company  in  the  coffee-room  some 
verses  composed  in  his  own  honor,  it  is  said,  by  Lady 
Craven. 

From  the  tavern  of  the  gentry  we  pass  on  to  the 
tavern  of  the  mechanics,  and  of  the  class  which  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  has  forever  distinguished  by  the  title  of 
the  common  people. 

Among  such  houses  the  Salutation,  which  stood  at 
the  junction  of  Salutation  with  North  Street,  is  deserv- 
ing of  a  conspicuous  place.  Its  vicinity  to  the  ship- 
yards secured  for  it  the  custom  of  the  sturdy  North 
End  shipwrights,  caulkers,  gravers,  sparmakers,  and  the 
like,  —  a  numerous  body,  who,  while  patriots  to  the 
backbone,  were  also  quite  clannish  and  independent  in 
their  feelings  and  views,  and  consequently  had  to  be 
managed  with  due  regard  to  their  class  prejudices,  as 
in  politics  they  always  went  in  a  body.  Shrewd  poli- 
ticians, like  Samuel  Adams,  understood  this.  Governor 
Phips  owed  his  elevation  to  it.  As  a  body,  therefore, 
these  mechanics  were  extremely  formidable,  whether  at 
the  polls  or  in  carrying  out  the  plans  of  their  leaders. 
To  their  meetings  the  origin  of  the  word  caucus  is 
usually  referred,  the  word  itself  undou1)tedly  having 
come  into  familiar  use  as  a  short  way  of  saying  caulkers' 
meetings. 

The   Salutation   became   the  point  of   fusion  between 


46  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

leading  Whig  politicians  and  the  shipwrights.  More 
than  sixty  influential  mechanics  attended  the  first  meet- 
ing, called  in  1772,  at  which  Dr.  Warren  drew  up  a 
code  of  by-laws.  Some  leading  mechanic,  however,  was 
always  chosen  to  be  the  moderator.  The  "caucus,"  as 
it  began  to  be  called,  continued  to  meet  in  this  place 
until  after  the  destruction  of  the  tea,  when,  for  greater 
secrecy,  it  became  advisable  to  transfer  the  sittings  to 
another  place,  and  then  the  Green  Dragon,  in  Union 
Street,  was  selected. 

The  Salutation  had  a  sign  of  the  sort  that  is  said  to 
tickle  the  popular  fancy  for  what  is  quaint  or  humorous. 
It  represented  two  citizens,  with  hands  extended,  bow- 
ing and  scraping  to  each  other  in  the  most  approved 
fashion.  So  the  North-Enders  nicknamed  it  "The  Two 
Palaverers,"  by  which  name  it  was  most  commonly 
known.  This  house,  also,  was  a  reminiscence  of  the 
Salutation  in  Newgate  Street,  London,  which  was  the 
favorite  haunt  of  Lamb  and  Coleridge. 

The  Green  Dragon  will  probably  outlive  all  its  con- 
temporaries in  the  popular  estimation.  In  the  first 
place  a  mural  tablet,  with  a  dragon  sculptured  in  relief, 
has  been  set  in  the  wall  of  the  building  that  now  stands 
upon  some  part  of  the  old  tavern  site.  It  is  the  only 
one  of  the  old  inns  to  be  so  distinguished.  Its  sign 
was  the  fabled  dragon,  in  hammered  metal,  projecting 
out  above  the  door,  and  was  probably  the  counterpart 
of  the  Green  Dragon  in  Bishopsgate  Street,  London. 

As  a  public  house  this  one  goes  back  to  1712,  when 


IN  REVOLUTIONARY    TIMES.  47 


THE    GREEN    DRAGON. 


Eichard  PuUen  kept  it;  and  we  also  find  it  noticed,  in 
1715,  as  a  place  for  entering  horses  to  be  run  for  a 
piece  of  plate  of  the  value  of  twenty-five  pounds.  In 
passing,  we  may  as  well  mention  the  fact  that  Eevere 
Beach  was  the  favorite  race-ground  of  that  day.  The 
house  was  well  situated  for  intercepting  travel  to  and 
from  the  northern  counties. 

To  resume  the  historical  connection  between  the  Sahi- 
tation  and  Green  Dragon,  its  worthy  successor,  it  appears 
that  Dr.  Warren  continued  to  be  the  commanding  figure 
after  the  change  of  location;  and,  if  he  was  not  already 
the  popular  idol,  he  certainly  came  little  short  of  it,  for 
everything  pointed  to  him  as  the  coming  leader  whom 
the  exigency  should  raise  up.  Samuel  Adams  was 
popular  in  a  different  way.  He  was  cool,  far-sighted, 
and  persistent,  but  he  certainly  lacked  the  magnetic 
quality.  Warren  was  much  younger,  far  more  impetu- 
ous and  aggressive,  —  in  short,  he  possessed  all  the  more 
brilliant  qualities  for  leadership  which  Adams  lacked. 
Moreover,   he   was    a   fiuent   and    efl'ective   speaker,   of 


48  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

graceful  person,  handsome,  affable,  with  frank  and  win- 
ning manners,  all  of  which  added  no  little  to  his  popu- 
larity. Adams  inspired  respect,  Warren  confidence.  As 
Adams  himself  said,  he  belonged  to  the  "cabinet," 
while  Warren's  whole  make-up  as  clearly  marked  him 
for  the  field. 

In  all  the  local  events  preliminary  to  our  revolu- 
tionary struggle,  this  Green  Dragon  section  or  junto 
constituted  an  active  and  positive  force.  It  represented 
the  muscle  of  the  Eevolution.  Every  member  was 
sworn  to  secrecy,  and  of  them  all  one  only  proved 
recreant  to  his  oath. 

These  were  the  men  who  gave  the  alarm  on  the  eve 
of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  who  spirited  away  cannon 
under  General  Gage's  nose,  and  who  in  so  many  in- 
stances gallantly  fought  in  the  ranks  of  the  republican 
army.  Wanting  a  man  whom  he  could  fully  trust, 
Warren  early  singled  out  Paul  Eevere  for  the  most 
important  services.  He  found  him  as  true  as  steel.  A 
peculiar  kind  of  friendship  seems  to  have  sprung  up 
between  the  two,  owing,  perhaps,  to  the  same  daring 
spirit  common  to  both.  So  when  Warren  sent  word  to 
Eevere  that  he  must  instantly  ride  to  Lexington  or  all 
would  be  lost,  he  knew  that,  if  it  lay  in  the  power  of 
man  to  do  it,  the  thing  would  be  done. 

Besides  the  more  noted  of  the  tavern  clubs  there  were 
numerous  private  coteries,  some  exclusively  composed  of 
politicians,  others  more  resembling  our  modern  debat- 
ing societies  than  anything  else.     These  clubs   usually 


IN  REVOLUTIONARY    TIMES.  49 

met  at  the  houses  of  the  members  themselves,  so  ex- 
erting a  silent  influence  on  the  body  politic.  The  non- 
importation agreement  originated  at  a  private  club  in 
1773.  But  all  were  not  on  the  patriot  side.  The  crown 
had  equally  zealous  supporters,  who  met  and  talked 
the  situation  over  without  any  of  the  secrecy  which 
prudence  counselled  the  other  side  to  use  in  regard  to 
their  proceedings.  Some  associations  endeavored  to  hold 
the  balance  between  the  factions  by  standing  neutral. 
They  deprecated  the  encroachments  of  the  mother- 
country,  but  favored  passive  obedience.  Dryden  has 
described  them: 

"Not  "WTiigs  nor  Tories  they,  nor  this  nor  that, 
Nor  birds  nor  beasts,  bnt  just  a  kind  of  bat, — 
A  twilight  animal,  true  to  neither  cause. 
With  Tory  wings  but  Whiggish  teeth  and  claws." 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  Gridley,  the  father  of 
the  Boston  Bar,  undertook,  in  1765,  to  organize  a  law 
club,  with  the  purpose  of  making  head  against  Otis, 
Thatcher,  and  Auchmuty.  John  Adams  and  Fitch  were 
Gridley's  best  men.  They  met  first  at  Ballard's,  and 
subsequently  at  each  other's  chambers;  their  "sodality," 
as  they  called  it,  being  for  professional  study  and  ad- 
vancement. Gridley,  it  appears,  was  a  little  jealous  of 
his  old  pupil,  Otis,  who  had  beaten  liini  in  the  famous 
argument  on  the  Writs  of  Assistance.  Mention  is  also 
made  of  a  club  of  which  Daniel  Leonard  {Massaclm- 
settensis),  John  Lowell,  Elisha  Hutchinson,  Frank  Dana, 


50  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

and  Josiah  Quincy  were  members.  Similar  clubs  also 
existed  in  most  of  the  principal  towns  in  New  Eng- 
land. 

The  Sons  of  Liberty  adopted  the  name  given  by- 
Colonel  Barre  to  the  enemies  of  passive  obedience  in 
America.  They  met  in  the  counting-room  of  Chase 
and  Speakman's  distillery,  near  Liberty  Tree.^  Mackin- 
tosh, the  man  who  led  the  mob  in  the  Stamp  Act  riots, 
is  doubtless  the  same  person  who  assisted  in  throwing 
the  tea  overboard.  We  hear  no  more  of  him  after  this. 
The  "  Sons  "  were  an  eminently  democratic  organization, 
as  few  except  mechanics  were  members.  Among  them 
were  men  like  Avery,  Crafts,  and  Edes  the  printer.  All 
attained  more  or  less  prominence.  Edes  continued  to 
print  the  Boston  Gazette  long  after  the  Eevolution. 
During  Bernard's  administration  he  was  offered  tlie 
whole  of  the  government  printing,  if  he  would  stop  his 
opposition  to  the  measures  of  the  crown.  He  refused 
the  bribe,  and  his  paper  was  the  only  one  printed  in 
America  without  a  stamp,  in  direct  violation  of  an  Act 
of  Parliament.  The  "  Sons  "  pursued  their  measures  with 
such  vigor  as  to  create  much  alarm  among  the  loyalists, 
on  whom  the  Stamp  Act  riots  had  made  a  lasting  im- 
pression. Samuel  Adams  is  thought  to  have  influenced 
their  proceedings  more  than  any  other  of  the  leaders. 
It  was  by  no  means  a  league  of  ascetics,  who  had  re- 
solved to  mortify  the  flesh,  as  punch  and  tobacco  were 
liberally  used  to  stimulate  the  deliberations. 

1  Liberty  Tree  grew  where  Liberty  Tree  Block  now  stands,  corner 
of  Essex  and  Wasliington  Streets. 


IN   REVOLUTIONARY    TIMES.  51 

No  important  political  association'  outlived  the  be- 
ginning of  hostilities.  All  the  leaders  were  engaged  in 
the  military  or  civil  service  on  one  or  the  other  side. 
Of  the  circle  that  met  at  the  Merchants'  three  were 
members  of  the  Philadelphia  Congress  of  1774,  one 
was  president  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachu- 
setts, the  career  of  two  was  closed  by  death,  and  that 
of  Otis  by  insanity. 


IV. 

SIGNBOARD    HUMOR. 

MOTHER  tavern  siirn,  though  of  later  date,  was 
that  of  the  Good  Woman,  at  the  North  End. 
This  Good  Woman  was  painted  without  a  head. 


The  Good  Woi^Mi 


li/^/^A^^^^^yy>w^y>A^A^yy^^^.ii^A^.-!^zzr-7 


Still  another  board  had  painted  on  it  a  bird,  a   tree,  a 
ship,  and   a  foaming  can,  with  the  legend, — 

"  This  is  the  bird  that  never  flew, 
This  is  tlie  tree  which  never  grew. 
This  is  the  ship  which  never  sails. 
This  is  the  can  which  never  fails," 


SIGNBOARD    HUMOR. 


53 


The  Dog  and  Pot,  Turk's  Head,  Tun  and  Bacchus,  were 
also   old   and    favorite   emblems.     Some   of    the   houses 


>///////>//^/////'///y///A>y/>y'yA 


!-^yyyy^yyyx^y^^y/y>>yy^yyy>^^^ 


DOG    AND    POT. 


which  swung  these  signs  were  very  quaint  specimens 
of  our  early  achitecture.  So,  also,  the  signs  themselves 
were  not  unfrequently  the  work  6i  good  artists.  Smi- 
bert  or  Copley  may  have  painted  some  of  them.  West 
once  offered  five  hundred  dollars  for  a  red  lion  he  had 
painted  for  a  tavern  sign. 

Not  a  few  boards  displayed  a  good  deal  of  ingenuity 
and  mother -wit,  which  was  not  without  its  effect,  espe- 
cially upon  thirsty  Jack,  who  could  hardly  be  expected 
to  resist  such  an  appeal  as  this  one  of  the  Hhi'p  in 
Distress : 

"  With  sorrows  I  am  compass'd  round ; 
Pray  lend  a  hand,  my  ship 's  aground." 

We  hear  of  another  signboard  hanging  out  at  the 
extreme  South  End  of  the  town,  on  which  was  depicted 
a  globe  with  a  man  breaking  through  the  crust,  like  a 


54  OLD    BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

chicken  from  its  shell.     The  man's  nakedness  was  sup- 
posed to  betoken  extreme  poverty. 

So  much  for  the  sign  itself.  The  story  goes  that 
early  one  morning  a  continental  regiment  was  halted 
in  front  of  the  tavern,  after  having  just  made  a  forced 
march  from  Providence.  The  men  were  broken  down 
with  fatigue,  bespattered  with  mud,  famishing  from  hun- 
ger.    One  of  these  veterans  doubtless  echoed  the  senti- 


"HOW    SHALL    I  GET    THROUGH    THIS    WORLD?" 

ments  of  all  the  rest  when  he  shouted  out  to  the  man 
on  the  sign,  "  'List,  darn  ye !  'List,  and  you'll  get  through 
this  world  fast  enousrh  ! " 

In  time  of  war  the  taverns  were  favorite  recruiting  ren- 
dezvous. Those  at  the  waterside  were  conveniently  sit- 
uated for  picking  up  men  from  among  the  idlers  who 
frequented  the  tap-rooms.  Under  date  of  1745,  when  we 
were  at  war  with  France,  bills  were  posted  in  the  town 
giving  notice  to  all  concerned  that, "  All  gentlemen  sailors 
and   others,  who  ore  minded  to   <>o  on   a   cruise   ofi'  of 


SIGNBOARD   HUMOR.  55 

Cape  Breton,  on  board  the  brigantine  ffawJc,  Captain 
Philip  Bass  commander,  mounting  fourteen  carriage,  and 
twenty  swivel  guns,  going  in  consort  with  the  brigan- 
tine Banger,  Captain  Edward  Fryer  commander,  of  the 
like  force,  to  intercept  the  East  India,  South  Sea,  and 
other  ships  bound  to  Cape  Breton,  let  them  repair  to 
the  Widow  Gray's  at  the  Crown  Tavern,  at  the  head  of 
Clark's  Wharf,  to  go  with  Captain  Bass,  or  to  the  Vernon's 
Head,  Eichard  Smith's,  in  King  Street,  to  go  in  the 
Banger.  "Gentlemen  sailors"  is  a  novel  sea-term  that 
must  have  tickled  an  old  salt's  fancy  amazingly. 

The  following  notice,  given  at  the  same  date  in  the 
most  public  manner,  is  now  curious  reading.  "To  be 
sold,  a  likely  negro  or  mulatto  boy,  about  eleven  years 
of  age."     This  was  in  Boston. 

The  Revolution  wrought  swift  and  significant  change 
in  many  of  the  old,  favorite  signboards.  Though  the 
idea  remained  the  same,  their  symbolism  was  now 
put  to  a  different  use.  Down  came  the  king's  and  up 
went  the  people's  arms.  The  crowns  and  sceptres,  the 
lions  and  imicorns,  furnished  fuel  for  patriotic  bonfires 
or  were  painted  out  forever.  With  them  disappeared 
the  last  tokens  of  the  monarchy.  The  crown  was 
knocked  into  a  cocked-hat,  the  sceptre  fell  at  the  un- 
sheathing of  the  sword.  The  heads  of  Washington  and 
Hancock,  Putnam  and  Lee,  Jones  and  Hopkins,  now 
fired  the  martial  heart  instead  of  Vernon,  Hawk,  or 
Wolfe.  Allegiance  to  old  and  cherished  traditions  was 
swept  away  as  ruthlessly  as  if  it  were  in  truth  but  the 


56  OLD   BOSTON    TAVERNS. 

reflection  of  that  loyalty  which  the  colonists  had  now 
thrown  off  forever.  They  had  accepted  the  maxim,  that, 
when  a  subject  draws  his  sword  against  his  king,  he 
should  throw  away  the  scabbard. 

Such  acts  are  not  to  be  referred  to  the  fickleness  of 
popular  favor  which  Horace  Walpole  has  morahzed 
upon,  or  which  the  poet  satirizes  in  the  lines, — 

"Vernon,  the  Butcher  Cumberland,  Wolfe,  Hawke, 
Prince  Ferdinand,  Granby,  Burgoyne,  Keppell,  Howe, 
Evil  and  good  have  had  their  tithe  of  talk, 
And  filled  their  sign-post  then  like  Wellesly  now," 

Rather  should  we  credit  it  to  that  genuine  and  impas- 
sioned outburst  of  patriotic  feeling  which,  having  turned 
royalty  out  of  doors,  indignantly  tossed  its  worthless 
trappings  into  the  street  after  it. 

Not  a  single  specimen  of  the  old-time  hostelries  now 
remains  in  Boston.  All  is  changed.  The  demon  demo- 
lition is  everywhere.  Does  not  this  very  want  of  perma- 
nence suggest,  with  much  force,  the  need  of  perpetuating 
a  noted  house  or  site  by  some  appropriate  memorial? 
It  is  true  that  a  beginning  has  been  made  in  this  direc- 
tion, but  much  more  remains  to  be  done.  In  this  way, 
a  great  deal  of  curious  and  valuable  information  may  be 
picked  up  in  the  streets,  as  all  who  run  may  read.  It 
has  been  noticed  that  very  few  pass  by  such  memorials 
without  stopping  to  read  the  inscriptions.  Certainly, 
no  more  popular  method  of  teaching  history  could  well 
be   devised.      This   being   done,   on  a   liberal   scale,  the 


SIGNBOARD   HUMOR. 


57 


city  would  still  hold  its  antique  ilavor  through  the 
records  everywhere  displayed  on  the  walls  of  its  build- 
ings, and  we  should  have  a  home  application  of  the 
couplet : 

"Oh,  but  a  wit  can  study  in  the  streets, 
And  raise  his  mind  above  tlie  mob  he  meets." 


APPENDIX 


«S2-<-S^ 


APPENDIX. 

BOSTON    TAVERNS    TO     TIIE    YEAR     1800. 


HE  Anchor,  or  Blue  Anchor.  Robert  Turner, 
vintner,  came  into  possession  of  the  estate  (Rich- 
ard Fairbanks's)  in  1052,  died  in  1664,  and  was 
succeeded  in  the  business  by  his  son  John,  who  continued 
it  till  his  own  death  in  1681 ;  Turner's  widow  married 
George  Monck,  or  Monk,  who  kept  the  Anchor  until  his  de- 
cease in  1698 ;  his  widow  carried  on  the  business  till  1703, 
when  the  estate  probably  ceased  to  be  a  tavern.  The  house 
was  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  1711.  The  old  and  new 
Globe  buildings  stand  on  the  site.  [See  communication  of 
William  R.  Bagnall  in  Boston  Daily  Glohe  of  April  2, 
1885.]  Committees  of  the  General  Court  used  to  meet 
here.     (Hutchinson  Coll.,  345,  347.) 

Admiral  Vernon,  or  Vernon's  Head,  corner  of  State 
Street  and  Merchants'  Row.  In  1743,  Peter  raneuil's 
Avarehouse  was  opposite.  Richard  Smith  kept  it  in  1745, 
Mary  Bean  in  1775 ;  its  sign  was  a  portrait  of  the  admiral. 

American  Coffee-House.    See  British  Coffee- Ho^ise. 

Black  Horse,  in  Prince  Street,  formerly  Black  Horse 
Lane,  so  named  from  the  tavern  as  early  as  1698. 

Brazen-Head.  In  Old  Cornhill.  Though  not  a  tav- 
ern, memorable  as  the  place  where  the  Great  Fire  of  1760 
originated. 

Bull,  lower  end  of  Summer  Street,  north  side ;  demol- 
ished 1833  to  make  room  ''  for  the  new  street  from  Sea  to 

01 


62  APPENDIX. 

Broad,"  formerly  Flounder  Lane,  now  Atlantic  Avenue. 
It  was  then  a  very  old  building.  Bull's  Wharf  and  Lane 
named  for  it. 

British  Coffee-House,  mentioned  in  1762.  John  Bal- 
lard kept  it.     Cord  Cordis,  in  1771. 

Bunch  of  Grapes.  Kept  by  Francis  Holmes,  1712; 
William  Coffin,  1731-33;  Edward  Lutwych,  1733;  Joshua 
Barker,  1749 ;  William  Wetherhead,  1750 ;  Rebecca  Coffin, 
1760 ;  Joseph  Ingersoll,  1764  -  72.  [In  1768  Ingersoll  also 
had  a  wine-cellar  next  door.]  Captain  John  Marston  was 
landlord  1775  -  78 ;  William  Foster,  1782 ;  Colonel  Dudley 
Colman,  1783;  James  Vila,  1789,  in  which  year  he  re- 
moved to  Concert  Hall ;  Thomas  Lobdell,  1789.  Trinity 
Church  was  organized  in  this  house.  It  was  often  de- 
scribed as  being  at  the  head  of  Long  Wharf. 

Castle  Tavern,  afterward  the  George  Tavern.  North- 
east by  Wing's  Lane  (Elm  Street),  front  or  southeast  by 
Dock  Square.  For  an  account  of  Hudson's  marital  troubles, 
see  Winthrop's  New  England,  11.  249.  Another  house  of 
the  same  name  is  mentioned  in  1675  and  1693.  A  still 
earlier  name  was  the  "Blew  Bell,"  1673.  It  was  in 
Mackerel  Lane  (Kilby  Street),  corner  of  Liberty  Square. 

Cole's  Inn.  See  the  referred-to  deed  in  Proc.  Am.  Ant. 
Soc,  VII.  p.  51.  For  the  episode  of  Lord  Leigh  consult 
Old  Landmarks  of  Boston,  p.  109. 

Cromwell's  Head,  by  Anthony  Brackett,  1760 ;  by  his 
widow,  1764-68;  later  by  Joshua  Brackett.  A  two-story 
Avooden  house  advertised  to  be  sold,  1802. 

Crown  Coffee-House.  First  house  on  Long  Wharf. 
Thomas  Selby  kept  it  1718-24;  Widow  Anna  Swords, 
1749 ;  then  the  property  of  Governor  Belcher ;  Belcher  sold 
to  Richard  Smith,  innholder,  who  in  1751  sold  to  Robert 
Sherlock. 

Crown  Tavern.  Widow  Day's,  head  of  Clark's  Wharf ; 
rendezvous  for  privateersmen  in  1745. 


BOSTON    TAVERNS    TO    THE    YEAR    1800.  63 

Cross  Tavern,  corner  of  Cross  and  Ann  Streets,  VIdi2i\ 
Samuel  Mattocks  advertises,  1729,  two  young  bears  "very- 
tame"  for  sale  at  the  Sign  of  the  Cross.  Cross  Street 
takes  its  name  from  the  tavern.  Perhaps  the  same  as 
the  Red  Cross,  in  Ann  Street,  mentioned  in  1746,  and 
then  kept  by  John  Osborn.  Men  who  had  enlisted  for 
the  Canada  expedition  were  ordered  to  report  there. 

Dog  and  Pot,  at  the  head  of  Bartlett's  Wharf  in  Ann 
(North)  Street,  or,  as  then  described,  Fish  Street.  Bart- 
lett's Wharf  was  in  1722  next  northeast  of  Lee's  shipyard. 

Concert  Hall  was  not  at  first  a  public  house,  but  was 
built  for,  and  mostly  used  as,  a  place  for  giving  musical 
entertainments,  balls,  parties,  etc.,  though  refreshments 
were  probably  served  in  it  ])y  the  lessee.  A  "concert  of 
rausick  "  was  advertised  to  be  given  there  as  early  as  1755. 
(See  Landmarks  of  Boston.)  Thomas  Turner  had  a  danc- 
ing and  fencing  academy  there  in  1776.  As  has  been 
mentioned,  James  Vila  took  charge  of  Concert  Hall  in 
1789.  The  old  hall,  which  formed  the  second  story,  was 
high  enough  to  be  divided  into  two  stories  when  the 
building  was  altered  by  later  owners.  It  was  of  brick, 
and  had  two  ornamental  scrolls  on  the  front,  Avhich  were 
removed  when  the  alterations  were  made. 

Great  Britain  Coffce-House,  Ann  Street,  1715.  The 
house  of  Mr.  Daniel  Stevens,  Ann  Street,  near  the  draw- 
bridge. There  was  another  liouse  of  the  same  name  in 
Queen  (Court)  Street,  near  the  Exchange,  in  1713,  where 
"superfine  bohea,  and  green  tea,  chocolate,  coifee-powder, 
etc.,"  were  advertised. 

George,  or  St.  George,  Tavern,  on  the  Neck,  near 
Roxbury  line.  (See  Landmarks  of  Boston.)  Noted  as 
early  as  1721.  Simon  Rogers  kept  it  1730-34.  In  1769 
Edward  Bardin  took  it  and  changed  the  name  to  the 
King's  Arms.     Thomas  Brackett  was  landlord  in   1770. 


64  APPENDIX. 

Samuel  Mears,  later.  During  the  siege  of  1775  the  tavern 
was  burnt  by  the  British,  as  it  covered  our  advanced  line. 
It  was  known  at  that  time  by  its  old  name  of  the  George. 

Goltlen  Ball.  Loring's  Tavern,  Merchants'  Row,  corner 
of  Corn  Court,  1777.     Kept  by  Mrs.  Loring  in  1789. 

General  Wolfe,  Town  Dock,  north  side  of  Faneuil 
Hall,  1768.  Elizabeth  Coleman  offers  for  sale  utensils  of 
Brew-House,  etc.,  1773. 

Green  Dragon,  also  Freemason's  Arms.  By  Richard 
Pullin,  1712;  by  Mr.  Pattoun,  1715;  Joseph  Kilder,  1734, 
who  came  from  the  Three  Cranes,  Charlestown.  John 
Gary  was  licensed  to  keep  it  in  1769  ;  Benjamin  Burdick, 
1771,  Avhen  it  became  the  place  of  meeting  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary Club.  St.  Andrews  Lodge  of  Freemasons  bought 
the  building  before  the  Revolution,  and  continued  to  own 
it  for  more  than  a  century.     See  p.  46. 

Hancock  House,  Corn  Court ;  sign  has  Governor  Han- 
cock's portrait,  —  a  wretched  daub ;  said  to  have  been  the 
house  in  which  Louis  Philippe  lodged  during  his  short  stay 
in  Boston. 

Hat  and  Helmet,  by  Daniel  Jones ;  less  than  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  south  of  the  Town-House. 

Indian  Queen,  Blue  Bell,  and stood  on  the  site 

of  the  Parker  Block,  Washington  Street,  formerly  Marl- 
borough Street.  Nathaniel  Bishop  kept  it  in  1673.  After 
stages  begun  running  into  the  country,  this  house,  then 
kept  by  Zadock  Pomeroy,  was  a  regular  starting-place  for 
the  Concord,  Groton,  and  Leominster  stages.  It  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Washington  Coffee-House.  The  Indian 
Queen,  in  Bromfield  Street,  was  another  noted  stage-house, 
though  not  of  so  early  date.  Isaac  Trask,  Nabby,  his  widow, 
Simeon  Boyden,  and  Preston  Shepard  kept  it.  The  Brom- 
field House  succeeded  it,  on  the  Methodist  Book  Concern 
site. 


BOSTON    TAVERNS    TO    THE    YEAR   1800.  65 


ri:e^7^ig^.:^:,- ' 


Julien's  Restorator,  corner  of  Congress  and  Milk 
streets.  One  of  the  most  ancient  buildings  in  Boston,  when 
taken  down  in  1824,  it  having  escaped  the  great  fire  of 
1759.  It  stood  in  a  grass-plot,  fenced  in  from  the  street. 
It  was  a  private  dwelling  until  1794.  Then  Jean  Baptiste 
Julien  opened  in  it  the  first  public  eating-house  to  be  estab- 
lished in  Boston,  with  the  distinctive  title  of  "Eestora- 
tor,"  —  a  crude  attempt  to  turn  the  French  word  restaurant 
into  English.  Before  this  time  such  places  had  ahvays 
been  called  cook-shops.  Julien  was  a  Frenchman,  who, 
like  many  of  his  countrymen,  took  refuge  in  America 
during  the  Reign  of  Terror.  His  soups  soon  became 
famous  among  the  gourmands  of  the  town,  while  the 
novelty  of  his  cuisine  attracted  custom.  He  was  famil- 
iarly  nicknamed   the    "Prince   of    Soups."       At.  Julien's 


66  APPENDIX. 

death,  in  1805,  his  widow  succeeded  him  in  the  business, 
she  carrying  it  on  successfully  for  ten  years.  The  fol- 
lowing lines  were  addressed  to  her  successor,  Frederick 
Eouillard : 

JULIEN'S    RESTORATOR. 

I  knew  by  the  glow  that  so  rosily  shone 

Upon  Frederick's  cheeks,  that  he  lived  on  good  cheer; 
And  I  said,  "  If  there 's  steaks  to  be  had  in  the  town, 

The  man  who  loves  venison  should  look  for  them  here." 

'Twas  two ;  and  the  dinners  were  smoking  around, 
The  cits  hastened  home  at  the  savory  smell. 

And  so  still  was  the  street  that  I  heard  not  a  sound 
But  the  barkeeper  ringing  the  Coffee-House  bell. 

"  And  here  in  the  cosy  Old  Club,"  ^  I  exclaimed, 
"With  a  steak  that  was  tender,  and  Frederick's  best  wine, 

While  under  my  platter  a  spirit-blaze  flamed. 

How  long  could  I  sit,  and  how  well  could  I  dine  I 

"  By  the  side  of  my  venison  a  tumbler  of  beer 

Or  a  bottle  of  sherry  how  pleasant  to  see. 
And  to  know  that  I  dined  on  the  best  of  the  deer, 

That  never  was  dearer  to  any  than  me ! " 

King's  Head,  by  Scarlet's  Wharf  (northwest  corner 
Fleet  and  North  streets)  ;  burnt  1691,  and  rebuilt.  Fleet 
Street  was  formerly  Scarlet's  Wharf  Lane.  Kept  by 
James  Davenport,  1755,  and  probably,  also,  by  his  widow. 
"A  maiden  dwarf,  lifty-two  years  old,"  and  only  twenty- 
two  inches  high,  was  "to  be  seen  at  Widow  Bignall's, 
next  door  to  the  King's  Head,  in  August,  1771.  The 
old  King's  Head,  in  Chancery  Lane,  London,  was  the  ren- 

'  The  name  of  a  room  at  Julien's. 


BOSTON    TAVERNS    TO    THE    YEAR    1800.  67 

dezvous  of  Titus  Gates'  party.  Cowley  the  poet  was  born 
in  it. 

Liamb.  The  sign  is  mentioned  as  early  as  1746.  Col- 
onel Doty  kept  it  in  1760.  The  first  stage-coach  to  Provi- 
dence put  up  at  this  house.  The  Adams  House  is  on  the 
same  site,  named  for  Laban  Adams,  who  had  kept  the 
Laiah. 

LiioR,  formerly  Grand  Turk.  In  Newbury,  now  Wash- 
ington, Street.  (^QQ  Landmarks  of  Boston.)  Kept  by  Israel 
Hatch  in  17S9. 

Light-House  and  Anchor,  at  the  North  End,  in  1763. 
Robert  Whatley  then  kept  it.  A  Light-house  tavern  is 
noted  in  King  Street,  opposite  the  Town-House,  1718. 

Orange  Tree,  head  of  Hanover  Street,  1708.  Jonathan 
Wardwell  kept  it  in  1712;  Mrs.  Wardwell  in  1724;  still 
a  tavern  in  1785.  Wardwell  set  up  here  the  first  hackney- 
coach  stand  in  Boston. 

Philadelphia,  or  North  End  Coffee-House,  opposite 
the  head  of  Hancock's  Wharf.  Kept  by  David  Porter, 
father  of  the  old  Commodore  and  grandfather  of  the 
present  Admiral.  "  Lodges,  clubs,  societies,  etc.,  may  be 
provided  with  dinners  and  suppers,  —  small  and  retired 
rooms  for  small  company,  —  oyster  suppers  in  the  nicest 
manner."  Formerly  kept  by  Bennet.  Occupied,  1789,  by 
Robert  Wyre,  distiller. 

Punch  Bowl,  Dock  Square,  kept  by  Mrs.  Baker,  1789. 

Queen's  Head.  In  1732  Joshua  Pierce,  innliolder,  is 
allowed  to  remove  his  license  from  the  sign  of  the  Log- 
wood Tree,  in  Lynn  Street,  to  the  Qrieen's  Head,  near 
Scarlet's  Wharf,  where  Anthony  Young  last  dwelt. 

Roebuck,  north  side  of  Town  Dock  (North  Market 
Street).  A  house  of  bad  repute,  in  which  Henry  Phillips 
killed  Gaspard  Dennegri,  and  was  hanged  for  it  in  1817. 
Roebuck  passage,  the   alley-way  through   to  Ann   Street, 


68  APPENDIX. 

took  its  name  from  the  tavern.     It  is  now  included  in  the 
extension  northward  of  Merchants'  Row. 

Rose  and  Crown,  near  the  fortification  at  Boston  Neck. 
To  be  let  January  25,  1728 :  "  enquire  of  Gillam  Phillips." 
This  may*  be  the  house  represented  on  Bonner's  map  of 

1722. 

Red  Lion,  North  Street,  corner  of  Richmond.  Noticed 
as  early  as  1654  and  as  late  as  1766.  John  Buchanan, 
baker,  kept  near  it  in  1712. 

Royal  Exchange,  State  Street,  corner  Exchange.  An 
antique  two-story  brick  building.  Noticed  under  this  name, 
1711,  then  kept  by  Benjamin  Johns ;  in  1727,  and  also,  in 
1747,  by  Luke  Vardy.  Stone  kept  it  in  1768.  Mrs.  Mary 
Clapham  boarded  many  British  officers,  and  had  several 
pretty  daughters,  one  of  whom  eloped  with  an  officer.  The 
site  of  the  Boston  Massacre  has  been  marked  by  a  bronze 
tablet  placed  on  the  wall  of  the  Merchants'  Bank,  opposite 
a  wheel-line  arrangement  of  the  paving,  denoting  where 
the  first  blood  of  the  Revolution  was  shed.  It  was  the 
custom  to  exhibit  transparencies  on  every  anniversary  of 
the  Massacre  from  the  front  of  this  house.  The  first  stage- 
coach ever  run  on  the  road  from  Boston  to  New  York  was 
started  September  7,  1772,  by  Nicholas  Brown,  from  this 
house,  "to  go  once  in  every  fourteen  days."  Israel  Hatch 
kept  it  in  1800,  as  a  regular  stopping-place  for  the  Provi- 
dence stages,  of  which  he  was  proprietor ;  but  upon  the 
completion  of  the  turnpike  he  removed  to  Attleborough. 

Salutation,  North  Street,  corner  Salutation.  See  p.  45. 
Noticed  in  1708 ;  Samuel  Green  kept  it  in  1731 ;  William 
Campbell,  who  died  suddenly  in  a  fit,  January  18,  1773. 

Seven  Stars,  in  Summer  Street,  gave  the  name  of 
Seven  Star  Lane  to  that  street.  Said  to  have  stood  on  part 
of  the  old  Trinity  Church  lot.  "Near  the  Haymarket" 
1771,  then  kept  by  Jonathan  Patten. 


BOSTON    TAVERNS    TO    THE    YEAR    ISOO.  69 

Shakespeare,  Water  Street,  second  house  below  Devon- 
shire ;  kept  by  Mrs.  Baker. 

Ship,  corner  Clark  and  North  streets;  kept  by  John 
Vyall,  1666-67;  frequently  called  Noah's  Ark. 

Ship  in  Distress,  vicinity  of  North  Square, 

Star,  in  Hanover  Street,  corner  Link  Alley,  1704.  Link 
Alley  was  the  name  given  to  that  part  of  Union  Street 
west  of  Hanover.  Stephen  North  kept  it  in  1712-14.  It 
belonged  to  Lieutenant-Governor  Stoughton. 

State's  Arms,  also  King's  Arms.  Colonel  Henry 
Shrimpton  bequeathed  it  to  his  daughter  Sarah,  1G66. 
Hugh  Gunnison  sold  it  to  Shrimpton  in  1G51,  the  tavern 
being  then  .the  King's  Arms. 

Sun.  This  seems  to  have  been  a  favorite  emblem,  as 
there  were  several  houses  of  the  name.  The  Sun  in  Bat- 
terymarch  Street  was  the  residence  of  Benjamin  Hallowell, 
a  loyalist,  before  it  became  a  tavern.  The  estate  was  con- 
fiscated. General  Henry  Dearboiii  occupied  it  at  one  time. 
The  sign  bore  a  gilded  sun,  with  rays,  with  this  inscrip- 
tion : 

"The  best  Ale  and  Porter 
Under  the  Sun." 

Upon  the  conversion  of  the  inn  into  a  store  the  sign  of 
the  sun  was  transferred  to  a  house  in  Moon  Street.  The 
Sun  in  Dock  Srpiaro.  corner  of  Corn  Court,  was  earlier, 
going  back  to  1724,  kept  by  Samuel  Mears,  who  was 
"lately  deceased"  in  1727.  It  was  finally  turned  into  a 
grocery  store,  kept  first  by  George  Murdock,  and  then  by 
his  successor,  Wellington.  A  third  house  of  this  name 
was  in  Cornhill  (^Vashington  Street),  in  1755.  Captain 
James  Day  kept  it.  There  was  still  another  Sun,  near 
Boston  Stone,  kept  by  Joseph  Jackson  in  1785. 


70 


APPENDIX. 


Swan,  in  Fish,  now  ^orth  Street,  "  by  Scarlett's  Wharf," 
1708.  There  was  another  at  the  South  End,  "nearly  oppo- 
site Arnold  Welles',"  in  1784. 

Three  Horse-Shoes,  "in  the  street  leading  up  to  the 
Common,"  probably  Tremont  Street.  Kept  by  Mrs.  Glover, 
wlio  died  about  1744.     William  Clears  kept  it  in  1775. 

White  Horse,  a  few  rods  south  of  the  Lamb.  It  had 
a  white  horse  painted  on  the  signboard.  Kept  by  Joseph 
Morton,  1760,  who  was  still  landlord  in  1772.  Israel 
Hatch,  the  ubiquitous,  took  it  in  1787,  on  his  arrival  from 
Attleborough.  .  His  announcement  is  unique.  (See  Land- 
marks of  Boston,  pp.  392,  393.) 


Writings  of  Samuel  Adams  Drake. 

Old   Landmarks  and   Historic   Personages  of  Boston. 

One  Volume,  square  12mo,  100  Illustrations.    Price,  S  2.00. 

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tion."—  John  G.  Palfrey. 

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"  Mr.  Drake's  '  Old  Landmarks  and  Historic  Personages  of  Boston ' 
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papers could  have  told  us  much  less  about  the  Old  South,  —  the  fate 
of  which  still  hangs  in  the  balance."  —  Springfield  Republican. 

"  Never  have  we  seen  a  book  that  came  so  near  exhausting  a  subject 
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"The  plan  of  grouping  the  most  interesting  neighborhoods,  so  as  to 
embrace  nearly  the  whole  peninsula  of  Boston,  is  original."  —  John 
Ward  Dean  in  Evening  Transcript. 

"  We  have  read  and  re-read  Mr.  Drake's  charming  work  with  ever- 
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Old   Landmarks  and   Historic   Fields  of  Middlesex. 

One   Volume,  square  \2mo,  fully  illustrated.     Price,  §2.00. 

" '  Historic  Fields  and  Mansions  of  Middlesex '  is  a  book  after  my 
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71 


Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New   England  Coast. 

Svperbly  illustrated  by  eminent  American  Artists.    §3.50. 

"  His  style  is  at  once  simple  and  graphic,  and  his  work  (a  rare  merit 
in  these  days  of  trash  and  sensationalism)  as  conscientious  and  faith- 
ful to  fact  as  if  he  were  the  dullest  of  annalists  instead  of  one  of  the 
liveliest  of  essayists  and  historians.    The  legitimate  charm  of  variety 

—  characteristic  of  a  work  of  this  kind  —  makes  the  hook  more  enter- 
taining than  any  volume  of  similar  size  devoted  exclusively  to  chro- 
nology, biography,  essays,  or  anecdotes,  —  for  Mr.  Drake's  '  Nooks  and 
Corners '  combines  all  of  these  and  much  more  in  delightful  propor- 
tions."—  John  G.  Saxe  in  the  Brooklyn  Argus. 

"  A  pleasanter  volume,  indeed,  to  carry  along  on  a  summer's  jaunt, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  name."  —  0.  B.  Bunce  in  Appleton's  Journal. 

"Mr.  Samael  Adams  Drake  does  for  the  New  England  coast  such 
service  as  Mr.  Nordhoff  has  done  for  the  Pacific.  His  '  Nooks  and 
Corners  of  the  New  England  Coast,'  a  volume  of  459  pages,  is  an  ad- 
mirable guide  both  to  the  lover  of  the  picturesque  and  the  searcher  for 
historic  lore,  as  well  as  to  stay-at-home  travellers.  The  '  Preface '  tells 
the  story  of  the  book ;  it  is  as  ketch-map  of  the  coast,  with  the  motto, 
'  On  this  line,  if  it  takes  all  summer.' "  —  New  York  Tribune. 

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has  lately  produced."  —  iV^eio  York  Sun. 

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this  year."  —  Buffalo  Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  Mr.  Drake's  '  Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England  Coast '  is  a 
delightful  book."  — Boston  Watchman. 

72 


CAPTAIN    NELSON: 

A    ROMANCE    OF    COLONIAL    DAYS. 
6vo,  paper.    75  cents. 

"A  well-written  novel,  spirited  in  the  telling,  and  particularly  inter- 
esting in  its  descriptions."  —  Boston  Saturday  Evenhuj  Gazette. 

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equally  instructive  as  entertaining."  —  Boston  Commercial  Bulletin. 

"  Has  a  delightful  flavor  of  olden  times.  The  whole  story  holds  the 
interest  from  the  first  page  to  the  last."  —  Neuj  York  Churchman. 

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charming  heroine,  is  an  interesting  bit  of  history.  It  is  one  of  the 
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on  which  it  is  founded,  but  without  the  formality  and  constraint  which 
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"  The  best  historical  novel  that  has  been  produced  for  a  long  time." 
—  Philadelphia  Press. 

"One  of  the  best  historical  novels  published  for  many  a  day."  — 
Boston  Post. 

The  Heart  of  the  White  Mountains. 

With  Illustrations  by  W.  Hamilton  Gib.son.   4to,  Illuminated  Cloth,  S7.50; 
Tourists'  Edition,  §3.00. 

"We  risk  little  in  saying  that  this  elegant  volume  will  remain  the 
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York  Sun. 

"The  letter-press  is  brightly  and  entertainingly  written,  and  the 
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73 


AROUND  THE  HUB. 

A   BOY'S  BOOK  ABOUT  BOSTON. 

One   Volume,  Square  12mo,  Illustrated.    Price,  $1.50. 

"  Of  the  three  boys'  books  on  Boston  which,  by  a  singular  coinci- 
dence, one  and  the  same  season  lias  brought  forth,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams 
Drake's  '  Around  the  Hub '  is  much  the  best.  His  book  ends  with  the 
Revolution,  as  does  Mr.  Scudder's,  but  its  scheme  is  quite  different, 
dealing  rather  with  epochs  than  with  men,  and  this  in  a  way  which 
betokens  first-hand  knowledge,  such  as  neither  of  the  other  books  we 
have  mentioned  implies.  This  is  especially  felt  in  the  descriptions  of 
primitive  manners  and  customs  in  Boston,  as  well  as  in  the  laudable 
reference  to  authorities  with  a  '  look  it  up.' " —  The  Nation. 

"The  author  has  written  a  book  about  Boston,  —  Boston  in  the  old 
time,  —  for  boys.  From  the  days  when  —  as  the  second  chapter  has  it 
— '  the  Puritans  hung  up  their  hats '  in  the  then  small  town  of  Shaw- 
mut,  down  to  its  expansion  into  the  Boston  of  a  hundred  years  ago, 
they  were  stirring  times  indeed.  Although  some  parts  of  the  book 
make  an  Englishman  wince,  it  is  just  the  sort  of  historical  story-telling 
to  do  boys  real  good.  Capital  illustrations  are  scattered  through  the 
volume,  increasing  the  realism  of  the  old-time  scenes  so  well  depicted." 
—  The  London  Bookseller. 

It  is  well  adapted  as  a  supplementary  reading-book  in  schools  and 
academies,  being  used  in  the  Boston  public  schools  for  that  purpose. 

New  England  Legends  and  Folk  Lore. 

Illustrated  by  F.  T.  Merril  and  A.  F.  Graves.    $  3.50. 

"  Many  of  the  legends  here  incorporated  have  existed  in  literature, 
previous  to  the  publication  of  this  book,  only  in  verse.''  —  Boston 
Saturday  Gazette. 

"  This  is,  in  many  respects,  the  best  work  that  Mr.  Drake  has  given 
us."  —  Boston  Post. 

"  It  was  a  happy  thought  thus  to  collect  and  arrange,  in  enduring 
form,  the  legends  with  which  New  England  abounds."  —  Melrose  Jour- 
nal. 

"  There  could  scarcely  be  a  more  happy  association  of  author  and 
subject  than  is  found  in  Mr.  Drake's  very  delightful  volume."  —  Boston 
Journal. 

"A  most  happy  thought  and  iiurpose  were  those  which  suggested  to 
the  author  the  conception  of  this  book,  and  the  execution  of  it  is  in 
full  keeping  with  the  conception."  —  Boston  Transcript. 

74 


The  Making  of  New  England. 

150  Illustrations  ami  Maps.    Price,  SI -50. 

A    FEW    AUTHORITATIVE    IXDORSEMEXTS. 

SOLD    BY    ALL    BOOKSELLERS. 

From  the  Hon.  CHARLES  H.  BELL,  Pres.  N.  H.  Historical  Society. 
"  I  have  examined  the  work  with  iimcli  interest,  and  think  the  plan 
of  it,  of  teaching  hi.story  by  topics,  rather  than  chronologically,  is  far 
better  calculated  to  fasten  it  in  the  memory.  For  the  purpose  of  an 
intermediate  work,  to  make  both  the  elementary  and  the  more  ex- 
tended histories  as  useful  as  possible,  I  think  it  is  extremely  well 
adapted,  and,  if  I  may  speak  for  others  as  well  as  myself.  I  believe  it 
will  be  found  of  great  convenience  to  the  advanced  students,  and  save 
them  much  labor  and  research.  In  my  opinion  your  work  ought  to 
have  a  wide  circulation." 

From  JOHN  WARD  DEAN,  N.  E.  Historic-Genealogical  Society. 

"  I  think  the  plan  of  Mr.  Drake's  new  book,  '  The  Making  of  New 
England,'  is  an  excellent  one,  and  its  execution  is  equally  praise- 
worthy. The  author  has  the  gift  of  making  historical  subjects  attrac- 
tive, but  he  does  not,  as  some  writers  do,  perjietuate  worthless  tradi- 
tions and  modern  inventions  for  the  i)urpose  of  making  them  .so.  The 
book  is  evidently  the  result  of  extended  and  conscientious  research,  as 
Mr.  Drake's  previous  works  have  been,  and  his  statement  of  facts  can 
be  relied  upon." 

From  Prof.  E.  N.  HORSFORD,  formerly  of  Harvard  University. 

"  I  am  impressed  with  the  exhaustive  research  that  qualified  you 
to  do  this  most  useful  and  rare  piece  of  literary  effort.  I  shall  get 
another  copy  as  soon  as  I  return  to  Cambridge  that  I  may  enricli  the 
public  library  here  (Shelter  Island)  with  the  best  New  England  portrait 
of  all  the  period  you  have  chosen." 

From  H.  B.  ADAMS,  author  of  "Methods  of  Historical  Study."  etc.,  and 
Professor  at  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

"The  book  seems  to  me  admirably  atlapted  for  its  jnirposc,  and 
tells  the  story  of  our  fathers'  migration  and  .settlement  in  the  most 
lucid  way.  I  am  delighted  to  see  that  you  have  introduced  so  much 
interesting  material  relating  to  the  beginnings  of  New  England.  It  is 
not  often  that  I  am  willing  to  praise  a  book,  but  in  this  case  the  book 
and  the  cause  are  exceptionally  good." 


From  Prof.  W,  H,  VENABLE,  of  Cincinnati,  O. 

"  Your  work  will  certainly  be  of  great  assistance  to  teachers.  The 
plan  of  using  your  chapters  as  reading  supplementary  to  the  regular 
lesson  in  History  is  practicable,  practical,  and  excellent." 

From  S.  AUSTIN  ALLIBONE,  Author  of  "  A  Dictionary  of  English 

Literature." 

" '  The  Making  of  New  England,'  by  vSamuel  Adams  Drake,  is  an 
admirable  summary  of  one  of  the  most  important  chapters  in  the 
history  of  civilization.  It  should  be  in  every  District  Library  of  the 
Public  Schools,  as  well  as  in  every  Private  Collection;  and  I  hope  it 
will  be  followed  by  similar  manuals  on  all  the  subsequent  epochs  of 
the  United  States  of  America." 

From  FRANCIS  PARKMAN,  Historian. 

"The  picture  of  early  colonial  life  is  clear  and  excellent.  In  the 
hands  of  a  competent  teacher,  the  book  will  be  very  effective  in  ex- 
citing a  wholesome  interest  in  our  early  history." 

H^^  If  your  local  bookseller  cannot  furnish  either  of 
the  above  works,  please  address  the  author  through  Messrs. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  iSTew  York  City. 


Santa  Barbara 


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